To prove that, here are some of the best works of fantasy fiction written by women over the past several decades. Many of these books are modern, but of course great authors like Ursula K. Le Guin flew so high long before many of us even considered trying to walk.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

With The Goblin Emperor, author Katherine Addison provides a very unique take on the fantasy story. Its setting is familiar: an elven land with a kingdom at its heart. But this is a high court tale of political games, rather than an adventure or a great war. Our protagonist, Maia, is the half-goblin youngest son of the emperor, and when a tragedy leads this exiled prince to suddenly ascend to the throne, he must learn the ins and outs of court life.

Imagine a novel set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire which takes place entirely in the King’s Landing—more specifically, the Red Keep. The Goblin Emperor is, first and foremost, a political drama. We follow closely, often with bated breath, as Maia navigates palace life, learns quickly who to trust, and who might want to stab him in the back. Then, of course, there’s the matter of the tragedy that took his father and brothers.

The Goblin Emperor is a fresh and unique fantasy novel that succeeds on the back of its fantastic protagonist, its sharp dialogue, and its deep dive into palace politics. A real page-turner of a fantasy novel, and a book like no other in the genre.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the great authors of sci-fi and fantasy; her legacy will last for as long as books themselves do. And while sci-fi novels like The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed encouraged readers to consider social dynamics and gender roles in unique ways, her Earthsea fantasy series—which began with A Wizard of Earthsea—is a masterpiece of world-building, character writing, and plotting.

In this first book in the series, we follow Ged, a young man born on a quiet island in this expansive archipelago world. Ged displays a knack for magic early in his life, and is sent off to study wizardry at a school of magic. From here, we watch him grow up into a powerful wizard.

What sets the novel apart from many of its kind is Ged himself: a reckless and often arrogant young man who makes mistakes and must fix them. This is a coming-of-age story in the trust sense, as Ged fumbles and commits grave errors on his way to being not only a wizard but, simply, an adult. Much like her contemporary Diana Wynne Jones, Le Guin wasn’t afraid to write characters who are at first unlikeable and must learn to face life head on.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

N.K. Jemisin is a powerhouse of a writer who pens fantasy masterpieces; that’s simply what she does, time after time after time. The City We Became—the first half of an urban fantasy duology—blends Lovecraftian mythology with superhero tropes to create a vibrant, exciting, and brilliantly fast-paced story about the soul of a city. The novel is also an unabashed love letter to the author’s home of New York City.

Our protagonists are the newly-awoken avatars of New York’s five burroughs: people chosen to fight for and protect a city and its people. When a world city has lived for long enough, and has developed enough of an identity, it wakes up and a soul is born. But some cities have more than one soul—London, for example, has twelve. And newly-awoken New York has five (and a sixth for the city itself).

These avatars—Manny, Brooklyn, Bronca, Padmini, and Aislyn—must find one another and also learn to understand themselves as the face off against a mysterious invader who is wreaking havoc on their city: The Woman in White. This is a brilliant work of urban fantasy that also explores contemporary American politics, race relations, gender dynamics, and more in a savvy and engaging way.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is a queen of the fantasy genre, and she is known for writing tightly-crafted trilogies of books which all take place in the same world. The best of these trilogies is, in this writer’s opinion, The Liveship Traders, which begins with Ship of Magic. These are books of family politics and trade economics set on islands, in coastal towns, and aboard ships brought to life by a sacred generational magic.

In Ship of Magic, we follow multiple interconnected characters—many of whom come from the same family of liveship traders: the Vestrits—as their liveship quickens following the death of its captain. Liveships are made from wizardwood, and they come to life (quicken) once three generations of captain have died on board. Its a magic that takes much time and sacrifice to finally take effect.

The strength of this series of fantasy novels comes from its interconnected family politics and the strength of those individual characters; some courageous and spirited, others secretive and corrupt. The cast is large, diverse, and brilliantly dynamic, and the political moves that are made keep readers firmly glued to the page.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang became an overnight sensation with the publication of her dark academia novel Babel, but her debut novel The Poppy War (the first book in a trilogy of the same name) is also a masterpiece of epic fantasy fiction. The Poppy War is set in a world inspired by 20th century China, and it follows Rin—a southern peasant girl who passes a rigorous test to enter the nation’s most prestigious military academy.

In doing so, Rin immediately frees herself from a life of poverty, removes herself from the place where she became a war orphan, and escapes the guardians who had planned to marry her off for money. But the academy itself is far from a pleasant place, and new struggles await her. Rin must continue her fight to survive, to thrive, and to prove herself against all the odds.

R.F. Kuang is, without a doubt, one of the great fantasy writers of this century. Her novels continue to amaze and inspire, and all of this began with the astonishingly powerful The Poppy War.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a wonderful work of urban fantasy that begins in Vermont and Antarctica. We follow two sisters, daughters of a family that has long been entrusted with protecting a library of powerful magical tomes. When the novel opens, their father stumbles out of their Vermont house, holding one of these books, and it kills him by draining him of his blood. How did this happen, and why?

While Joanna deals with this tragedy and the mystery behind it, her sister Esther is on a research base in Antarctica. She left home as a teenager and was told by her father that she can never stay in one place for longer than a year. Every November, she must pick herself up and move somewhere new. She is running from whatever it was that killed her mother, and that thing requires a year to find and hunt Esther down.

Mysteries abound in this novel, which blends dark academia with urban fantasy and thriller elements. Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a fantastically well-paced and well-plotted novel of dangerous, dark magic and those who keep it secret.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab is one of the most successful fantasy authors of this century so far. With her works often being set in our world, and with an urban fantasy vibe, she is often compared to Neil Gaiman, but her books very much have their own style and flavour. And that can best be seen with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a faustian tale about a young French woman who once made a deal with the devil, with unique ramifications.

The titular Addie LaRue made a deal that would see her living forever without ageing, but the catch is that nobody will ever remember her. As soon as she is out of sight, anyone who comes in contact with her instantly forgets her. She has lived this way for centuries, but one day in New York City, she meets a young man who, for some reason, doesn’t forget her.

The novel takes us from 18th century France to the NYC of the modern day, following the cursed and lonely life of a woman who cannot die but can also never be remembered. It’s a wonderful urban fantasy epic for readers of all kinds to enjoy.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke exploded into the literary scene with her thousand-page historical fantasy epic Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. And years later, she returned with the far shorter and far stranger Piranesi, one of the most singularly enjoyable and beloved fantasy novels of recent years (and winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021).

The less you know about this novel’s plot, the better, but here’s a vague blurb: the titular Piranesi lives in an endless labyrinth known as the House. He is mostly alone, except for routine visits from a well-dressed man he calls the Other. Piranesi explores this house, decorated with clouds and statues and an entire ocean. And one day, the Other gives him a task to complete.

To say more would be to spoil it, but Piranesi is a true page-turner. The mystery of the House begs understanding, as does the Other. And Piranesi himself is one of the most likeable, endearing protagonists in recent fiction—fantasy or otherwise. He is a true treasure of a protagonist, and its thanks to him that the novel is so adored.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Until the publication of this book, British fantasy author Samantha Shannon was known for her series of urban fantasy novels The Bone Season. Then came the enormous fantasy epic The Priory of the Orange Tree, which launched Shannon into the upper echelon of great fantasy writers.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a beautifully queer, brilliantly feminist tale of castles and dragons. It follows several characters in different places around the world. One is the queen of Inys, Sabran. She is struggling to hold onto power and there are those who seek to dethrone her. She also has a maid who secretly serves the titular society of mages: the priory. And then there is the young dragon rider Tané.

Each of these characters risks much from the very beginning, as tensions burn and the world threatens to shift. Worst of all is the threatened return of the great and evil dragon: The Nameless One. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a fantasy epic in every single way; one that adheres to the familiar rules and tropes of the genre but brings them into the modern day.

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake

While her novel The Atlas Six was an immediate smash hit, Gifted & Talented is certainly the superior novel. This is a richly detailed novel, written with a kind of gilded prose, which presents us with the lives of three horrible siblings: Meredith, Arthur, and Eilidh.

These nepobabies are the children of Thayer Wren, CEO of a magitech company. Meredith invented an app that asserts an ability to cure mental illness; Arthur is a young senator; and Eilidh is a former ballerina whose career was cut short by an injury.

Our protagonists are all horrid in their own entertaining ways, and each one is a potential inheritor of their father’s empire. Or are they? The events of the novel take a backseat to the unfolding of their hilariously unlovable personalities and behaviours; and Blake also sprinkles in a little (though arguably not enough) fun magic along the way.

The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan

The first book in Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy, The Magician’s Guild follows a young slum girl named Sonea, who has put a target on her own back by disrupting the peace with a single stone.

The magicians of Imardin are hated and feared, and during one of their routine purges of the city, their magic is pierced by a rock hurled by a little girl. This girl has a gift; untrained and untamed, she could turn their world on its head.

And so Sonea must run, and if she is captured she will be hurled into a world of dominant magic as she is held and trained by the titular Magician’s Guild.

A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos

Translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle

Written by French author Christelle Dabos, A Winter’s Promise is the first book in The Mirror Visitor trilogy of YA fantasy books. The peoples of this world live entirely on floating islands, isolated and heavily distinct from one another. These island nations (known as Arks) have their own traditions, technologies, and cultures.

One the Ark known as Anima, protagonist Ophelia is a girl with the unique ability to communicate with the souls of objects. She is also able to travel by passing through her own reflection. And Ophelia is thrown into an unhappy and unlikely situation when her hand is promised to a powerful member of the Dragon Clan: a man named Thorn.

A Winter’s Promise is a brilliantly inventive YA fantasy novel with a focus on romance and high court politics.

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken is the first novel in the Magic of the Lost fantasy series. This is a bold and thrilling queer epic about the evils of empire. Through subtle use of established languages and linguistic rules, the novel implies that it takes heavy inspiration from the French Colonial Empire and the North African nations it colonised.

Our first protagonist is Touraine, a soldier taken from her home and conscripted to fight for the very empire that took control of her land and its people. The second is the princess of that empire: a woman named Luca. It’s been years since Touraine was taken, and she has risen through the ranks as a weapon of the empire. Now, she is sent back to her homeland to squash a rising rebellion.

When one the rebellion’s leader is captured and executed, Touraine is told that her mother is alive. In a moment, this splits her loyalties and she is caught between her duty and her homeland. Making things harder is the bond that she forms with the princess after saving her life. The Unbroken is a phenomenal story of colonialism and empire.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Easily one of the most beloved fantasy stories of the past few decades, Erin Morgenstern’s astonishing debut novel The Night Circus is set in an alternate Victorian world, and it follows two protagonists who are pitted against one another by their masters in a contest of magic.

The titular circus is truly magical, travelling from place to place and led by its powerful owner, Prospero. But Prospero has an enigmatic friend named Mr A.H. —, and the two have made a pact to each raise a powerful magic user; when the time comes, their protégés will be made to duel. And it’s these two protégés that we follow over the course of this spellbinding novel.

Celia is Prospero’s daughter, and Marco is the orphan ward of Mr. A.H. —. As the novel goes, we watch them grow and learn more about the circus. The Night Circus stands out thanks to its playful fairytale plot and its author’s magnificent command over writing and dialogue.

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher is a master author of horror and dark fantasy, and Nettle and Bone is a short novel inspired by the tropes and aesthetics of fairy tales. Everything about these tropes are entirely and playfully inverted here, however. Protagonist Marra is the youngest princess of a small kingdom squashed between two larger and more imposing nations.

Her eldest sister, in a move of political strategy, was married of to the prince of one nation in order to better protect them from the other, but that sister has since died. Now, the prince wants to marry the family’s second daughter. Marra moves to protect her sister from sharing the first daughter’s fate. She means to kill this murderous prince.

To do that, however, she will need to head out on a dangerous quest, completing impossible tasks and recruiting strange people to her cause. She will somehow have to bring a dog to life and forge a cloak out of nettles. Doing so might allow her to complete her dangerous task.

Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone

Red Sonja is a character with a long and storied history, having begun as a Marvel Comics character back in the 70s. Today, she is owned by Dynamite and her story was rebooted by comic book legend Gail Simone back in 2013. A decade late, Simone made the world of Red Sonja the subject of her debut novel, Red Sonja: Consumed. And it is a fantastic sword and sorcery adventure.

Sword and sorcery is a unique subgenre of fantasy with a more pulpy tone and aesthetic; they are violent and less focussed on world-building. Rather, they follow a morally grey antihero on a bloody quest across an eldritch land of monsters and magic. And Red Sonja: Consumed offers fantasy readers a return to that subgenre which has become increasingly unpopular over the past few decades.

The novel begins with the titular Sonja, the She-Devil, having seduced and then stolen from a queen. Now, with the queen in hot pursuit, Sonja must return to her homeland as she hears whispers of a strange evil that rises from the earth and steals the life from unsuspecting innocents. The novel shifts point-of-view frequently, giving us a dynamic look at the world she inhabits and the dangerous tale that unfolds.

Queer graphic novels are a diverse and growing genre that reflects the diversity of the queer community, they’re full of the real lived experiences of those in the community and fantasy worlds that centre queer love and lives.

In this article, we have attempted to represent a broad scope of queer writers and stories. You’ll find a lesbian memoir, a gay romance, queer graphic novels filled with asexual and non-binary characters, as well as books by trans writers featuring trans characters.

The LGBTQ+ community has stuck its flag in the comics and manga scene, and we are living for it. This list might not be exhaustive by any means, but these are all queer graphic novels and manga that have affected us and we hope that you will love them equally.

Queer Graphic Novels and Manga

From queer memoirs to gay romances to action series’ with queer protagonists, here is a deep and varied list of some of the best queer graphic novels available right now.

Read More: LGBTQ+ Books from Around the World

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Tillie Walden is legendary on the queer graphic novel scene by this point but if you have managed to miss this stunning work then here’s your friendly push to pick it up next.

There’s so much going on in this story which balances Star Wars, space adventure romp with multiple timelines, romance, and newfound family.

Every page is more breathtaking in the last, notably the full-art pages which are fully deserving of being framed. The use of red and blue throughout On a Sunbeam is a feast for the eyes and forces you to linger and reread for full impact.

Our main protagonist, Mia, is part of a crew that rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures throughout space, piecing the past together.

As Mia gets to know her team, who are each well fleshed out with their own stories that become relevant later, we flashback to Mia’s time in a boarding school where she fell in love with a mysterious new student.

Mia finally reveals that she’s joined their ship to track down her lost love. 

Buy a copy of On a Sunbeam

Tip: If you love queer literature, then you’ll love Queer Book Box. You can choose to just receive a handpicked queer book a month or and All Out Box where you’ll get access to a book club, bookish gifts, queer zines and comics plus an all-manner of goodies.

You can receive five pounds off your order by using our Queer Book Box referral link.

Fun Home & Are You My Mother? By Alison Bechdel

Upon its publication, Fun Home very quickly started winning prizes and found itself at the top of many Book of the Year lists. Bechdel herself already had a long and loved career as the cartoonist of Dykes to Watch Out For, but Fun Home propelled her into the literary stratosphere.

Fun Home and its sequel, Are You My Mother? are both biographies that muse on the shaky and threadbare relationships between parents and their children, specifically from the perspective of a queer daughter struggling with her mental health.

Fun Home’s initial conceit is that Bechdel’s own father came out as gay shortly before dying after he was hit by a truck.

Whether or not his death was suicide hangs over the book while Bechdel attempts to piece together her fractured relationship with him, her own queerness, her success, and even her relationship with her psychiatrist.

Are You My Mother? focuses more on Bechdel’s relationship with her mother, both while growing up and as an adult. It’s a quieter book in some respects, but it does go into detail about Bechdel’s ongoing mental health struggles and how they are linked to her upbringing.

Both of these books are gorgeously, intimately drawn and written with such a raw, stripped-bare kind of intensity.

Buy a copy of Fun Home

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker (with Wendy Xu)

This cozy and colourful YA graphic novel is beautifully diverse and a wonderful portrait of both young queer love and older queer couples with one of my favourite older lesbian couples I’ve seen in literature.

Nova Huang, a teenage witch with a deep knowledge of magic, works at her grandmothers’ bookshop where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods and stumbles upon a shocking sight: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon.

Against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old, Nova and Tam’s latent feelings are rekindled as they work together to unravel the mysteries surrounding Tam’s past and protect the magic of wolves.

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The Well by Jake Wyatt (with Choo)

In this breathtaking and witty graphic novel, Jake Wyatt and Choo explore the power and limits of wishes in a modern fable rooted in magic and family secrets.

On the archipelago, Lizzy cares for her grandfather and their goats, flirts with the ferrywoman, and avoids the fog and monsters that come with night. But when she steals coins from a sacred well to cover a debt, her life is turned upside down.

The well demands repayment in wishes, and its minions will drown Lizzy if she doesn’t comply. To break the curse, Lizzy must uncover hidden memories, bestow wealth, and face the magical secrets that nearly destroyed her family before it’s too late.

If you love fantasy adventure stories, don’t miss this wonderful queer graphic novel.

Buy a copy of The Well

When I Came Out by Anne Mette Kaerulf Lorentzen

Translated from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund

When many graphic novels and novels featuring LGBTQ+ stories are aimed at young adults and tell the stories of young adults, it’s refreshing to read the memoir of someone who has taken a longer route to discover their sexuality.

Louise, our protagonist, has been married for twenty years to her husband and has four children but is realising that she’s not being honest with herself and yearns for a relationship with another woman.

When We Came Out takes us on a trip through her life as she recounts those subtle signs that were always there and ultimately her journey towards coming out. It’s funny, poignant, and you truly bond with Lousie from the get-go.

With elegant anthropomorphic pink and green drawings taking us through the story, this is a delightful and uplifting queer graphic novel that needs to be read.

Buy a copy of When I Came Out

Read More: Books to Read Before You Visit Denmark

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Now here is a meet cute: a young baker, sick of his job and anything to do with it, falls for an interviewee looking to take over his job, spurred on by his passion for baking. This is a sweet and charming story of blossoming queer love, to say the least.

Bloom also doubles as a phenomenal celebration of baking and baked goods in general, thanks to Ganucheau’s lovingly rich and detailed visual descriptions of the food which plays such a major role in the story.

This loving detail carried on to the rich and lived-in environments and the characters’ expressions and posture. This is an artist with a sense of personality and place.

Buy a copy of Bloom

Lumberjanes

Here is a queer graphic novel that had an exciting start in life and continued to morph, change, and develop as time went by.

Initially created by Noelle Stevenson and drawn by Grace Ellis, multiple writers and artists have now worked on the series, including transgender writer Lilah Sturgess, who penned Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass.

Lumberjanes began as a celebration of female strength and friendship. It’s a corny, cheeky, cheerful comic book series that pops with colour and goofy humour. A campy, raucous ride for all ages.

Having been taken on by multiple writers and artists over the years, however, its diversity has grown and spread, celebrating not only women but also queer people of all shapes and sizes.

Buy a copy of Lumberjanes

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is a big name in the YA genre these days, covering various avenues of queerness with her comics and novels. Her book Loveless is both a lesson in, and a poignant letter to, asexuality and aromanticism. But if you’re looking for a beautiful queer graphic novel, check out her series Heartstopper.

Heartstopper is something of a spin-off from Oseman’s debut novel Solitaire, focussing on the blossoming gay romance of the brother of that book’s protagonist.

As its cover succinctly explains, this is the story of boy meets boy, with Charlie — an out but awkward gay British teenager — gently falling in love with the more traditionally jockish Nick.

What makes Heartstopper such a breath of fresh air, both in the romance genre and as a queer graphic novel, is its approach to romantic tropes.

Quite often, the book will teasingly lean into a cliche about arguments, misunderstandings, or poor communication, only to resolve, circumvent, or even outright poke fun at that trope. This leads to a very fresh and refreshing kind of gay romance story.

Lovingly drawn and written with charming awkwardness, Heartstopper delivers moments that’ll make you crease up and squeal with excitement, and others that’ll have you sighing and swooning with love and sympathy for its characters.

This queer graphic novel isn’t just a delightful story; it’s a celebration of young gay romance.

Buy a copy of Heartstopper

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

Freddy is trapped in a toxic on-off relationship with her girlfriend Laura Dean who repeatedly blows hot and cold, treats her badly, and messes around with other women.

Freddy gets in touch with advice columnist Anna Vice to work through her emotions and become a better friend after spending so much time absorbed in her relationship and letting everyone else down.

A highly relatable, high-school drama that deals with some tough themes like abortion. It’s refreshing to see an example of a Lesbian relationship with problems we often only see in heteronormative stories, that also has a happy ending.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is also beautifully drawn and coloured in black and pink.

Buy a copy of Laura Dean

How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess

Very slowly, more ace fiction and nonfiction is being introduced into the world as awareness is raised and more people are sharing their own stories.

While there’s a long way to go in terms of good ace representation in popular media, this graphic memoir is an important read for anyone and a must-read for aces of all ages.

Feeling different and alone in your feelings is inevitable at times for ace (asexual) or aro (aromantic) people with a world that pushes romance and sex as the norm and ignores the other relationships that bond us – like friendship and familial.

So, reading Rebecca Burgess’s colourful memoir, and other recent novels like Alice Oseman’s Loveless, can certainly help with that feeling even if many of us wish they existed while we were in school.

How to be Ace takes us through Rebecca’s life from her school life where she was bullied and confused to an adult struggling with her identity and experiencing anxiety and OCD. It’s insightful, honest, and depicts asexual relationships in ways that we’re yet to see elsewhere.

Buy a copy of How to Be Ace

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Being queer — and, more specifically, being gender queer — means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But most of us have struggled with our identity and how we outwardly project ourselves to others at some point or another.

In Gender Queer, writer and artist Maia Kobabe retraces their own journey through life as a gender queer individual.

This is a queer graphic memoir which traces the steps of a life lived, as well as one explored and tested. The journey to understanding Maia’s own non-binary identity and asexuality, while traversing a gendered and binary world, is a fascinating one.

It will either draw out empathy and understanding from other queer readers, or will offer invaluable insight into this queer world for those who reside outside of it.

Buy a copy of Gender Queer

Read More: 9 Transgender Stories and Books by Trans Writers

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

Stone Fruit has a simple premise that delivers a quietly heartbreaking and tender story with a very real look at when relationships break down due to mental health issues and unresolved family trauma.

Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray’s niece, six-year-old Nessie enjoying escaping into the fantasy world they create together.

Bron, a trans woman estranged from her religious family is struggling with wanting to reconnect with her terrible family, and address her declining mental health. Ray struggles with Bron’s emotional absence and her own fraught relationship with her sister.

The unifier in Stone Fruit is Nessie who loves both of them and creates a special bond between the three that remains past Ray and Bron’s relationship breaking down highlighting the beauty of found family.

Buy a copy of Stone Fruit

Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Monstress is a lot. This is a deep dive into fantasy fiction that has far more lore, history, and politics wrapped up in it than your average comic book.

This queer comic carries the weight and intensity of a fantasy epic, and its incredible scope can be as daunting as it is impressive. But in her world-building, Marjorie Liu has achieved so much.

First off, she has created a compelling yet terrifying matriarchal society with so many intricate moving parts.

Secondly, she has carved out a powerful queer protagonist in Maika Halfwolf, a stoic and often terrifying main character. This is a delightfully gay story set in a gritty and dark steampunk world.

Fantastical and overflowing with imagination and narrative worldbuilding, Monstress can often feel overwhelming but having a protagonist as elegant yet gruesome as Maika, and having her be queer (and not the only queer character either) is endlessly exciting.

Monstress is an Image Comics series beloved by fans and a wonderful example of how to writer a powerful queer protagonist.

Buy a copy of Monstress

Read More: Best Batman Comics for New Readers

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, Jenn St. Onge, and Joy San

This is something you so rarely see in any kind of medium — queer, cis, gay, straight, whatever — and that is a romance between two older people. Love stories are often reserved for the young and the spritely.

But here is a queer comic book that features two women of colour in their mid-sixties, falling in love and enjoying their own queer romance.

The story begins with tragedy, as our protagonists fall in love at a young age but are forced apart and into more traditional marriages by family and societal pressures.

When they reunite so many years later, they get a second chance at love and life together. Bingo Love is a wonderful queer romance that will make you sing.

Buy a copy of Bingo Love

Lights, Planets, People by Molly Naylor (& Lizzy Stewart

A beautiful graphic novel that sees right into your soul and revels in picking apart your own worst anxieties. The narrative flits between renowned astronomer Maggie Hil lecturing a hall of students as she attempts to inspire young women to work in science and her first therapy session.

Here Maggie discusses, with difficulty, her own neurodivergence, mental health, problems with being in relationships (focusing specifically on her recent relationship with Jane), and her intense desire to make a difference to the world through her work.

The full-page spreads and art in Lights, Planets, People will take your breath away. Avery Press is publishing some of the most exciting queer graphic novels at the moment, and this is one of their best.

Buy a copy of Lights, Planets, People

Best Queer Manga

Queer manga has a long and interesting history with distinct genres being prominent from the 1970s onwards including Yaoi, or Boy’s Love and Yuri  Girl’s Love from the 1970s onwards. Here are a few very recent collections to get you started on your LGBTQ+ manga journey.

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness & My Solo Exchange Diary by Kabi Nagata

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is a graphic memoir written and drawn with a raw honesty. It opens your eyes to an important yet painful reality in Japan, all through the use of dark humour, minimalist art, and self-acceptance.

This queer memoir tells the story of Kabi, a woman who decided against attending university, and spent her early twenties in a haze of depression, drifting through jobs at stores and bakeries and, when she finds the energy to do so, she writes manga.

Eventually, she arrives, age twenty-eight, at a turning point. She decides to hire a female escort and a room at a love hotel, in order to learn and understand all that she believes she has missed out on in her youth.

The art of My Lesbian Experience With Lonliness, made up of pastel pinks against thick blacks and empty whites, is stunning. It has a calming energy that offsets the bleak humour and tragic personal tales.

But it meshes beautifully with this sense of opening up, risking pain and vulnerability, in the search for acceptance and happiness. The sequel My Solo Exchange Diary take us further into Kabi’s life.

Buy a copy of My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness

Read More: Best Asian Graphic Novels

My Brother’s Husband Gengoroh Tagame

My Brother’s Husband tells the story of Yaichi, single father of his kawaii-as-hell daughter Kana, and the arrival of the bear-like Canadian, Mike, who has come to share grief and comfort over the loss of his husband, and Yaichi’s twin brother, Ryoji.

It is made clear from the start that Yaichi never quite accepted his brother’s sexuality, nor his immigration to Canada. On top of that, the theme of acceptance is hammered home by Kana, a young and infinitely positive child who sees the good in everything.

My Brother’s Husband is a beautiful, well-crafted queer manga; a tale of family and love. At its core, it really is about nothing more than love in all its forms. It is unrelentingly cute, sweet, and joyous; a celebration of love both familial and romantic, and a true pleasure to read.

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Our Dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

Tasuku Kaname is a gay teenager trying desperately to come to terms with his sexual identity and find peace within it, all the while he is bullied and shunned by his classmates.

Slowly, he is introduced to a selection of colourful queer characters who all have their own struggles and their own lessons to teach Kaname.

Our Dreams at Dusk is a gorgeously drawn queer manga, full of love for the entire queer community. It celebrates the act of love and, specifically, of loving oneself above everything else.

This queer manga explores the dangers of marginalisation and the strength it takes to overcome, find a community, and feel loved. It is very much a story of empathy, love, and community.

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To Strip the Flesh by Oto Toda

Translated by Emily Balistrieri

To Strip the Flesh is a short manga, comprised of just two chapters, which explores the life of a young trans man named Chiaki.

Chiaki lives with his father, a hunter, and makes money from documenting their hunts on YouTube. His followers, however, enjoy seeing his large breasts in tight clothing.

Despite this, and his father’s wish for him to get married and be a beautiful bride, Chiaki has been pursuing HRT and wishes to also have GRS.

Chiaki is attempting to balance what he wants with what he sees as his duty to make his dying father happy.

We watch as their relationship changes and Chiaki finds his own happiness over the course of this short but beautiful queer manga.

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The Bride was a Boy by Chii

Too many transgender stories end in, or are peppered by, tragedy. The Bride was a Boy bucks that trend by being a sweet, warm, adorable transgender story of love and romance. This is the story of a young trans woman whose boyfriend completely adores her. Now, she is to become a bride.

Drawn in an absurdly adorable chibi art style, with squashed, kawaii characters bubbling with life and colour, this is a celebration of love and transness.

This queer manga is an essential transgender story and trans manga for anyone who wants to see what a more positive, celebratory trans story can bring to the table. It’s funny; it’s sweet; it’s heartwarming.

The Bride was a Boy will have you singing and laughing and cheering for the sweet romance of a young trans woman and her doting future husband.

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If you enjoyed this list of queer graphic novels and manga, please share with anyone you think would enjoy it.

When looking at lesbian novels and the art put out by lesbian authors, you see the darkest kinds of gothic fiction, as well as the brightest dedications to love and kindness. Whatever genre you love, from historical fiction to tales of sea monsters, and love crossing time and space there’s something for you here.

Essential Lesbian Novels

Some of these lesbian novels are dark and twisted; others are celebrations of queer love in the face of patriarchy. Some are in translation from other languages; others are forging new paths for well-trodden genres. What unites them all is their sheer quality. These are essential lesbian novels by some of the best women writers of today.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Julia Armfield made an enormous splash with her debut short story collection, Salt Slow. When she followed that with a staggering work of modern gothic fiction in Our Wives Under the Sea it quickly became clear how special her writing really is.

Our Wives Under the Sea is a gothic tale told from two perspectives; and one that explores the concepts of loss and grief from a frighteningly original angle.

Miri’s wife Leah set out on an expedition to the bottom of the sea in a cramped submarine. What should have been weeks turned to months, and when Leah eventually returned, she was different. Leah’s chapters blend the Lovecraftian with the Kafkaesque as we sink slowly with her, and we see what’s down there beneath everything.

Miri’s chapters follow her as she tries to live with, and fails to care for, the returned and broken Leah. A new Leah who barely speaks and behaves in strange and frightening ways. Miri is grieving the loss of her wife, confronted with the fact that whatever has returned is not Leah.

This is a lesbian novel that forces the reader to confront the idea of grief and how it might present itself. It’s a tale of love and loss and loneliness and isolation. A truly original gothic novel.

Watch our full video review of Our Wives Under the Sea

Buy a copy of Our Wives here!

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

After Sappho is the novelisation of a web of interconnected lives: queer women from around the turn of the 20th Century who pushed feminism and queer experiences into the limelight. This is one of the most kind, hopeful, and inspiring lesbian novels you could ever hope to read and enjoy.

We begin in Italy before tracing multiple threads across France, England, Ireland, and across to the US. The women here were all real: artists, writers, actors, philosophers, and travellers. Some you will be familiar with; others you won’t. All of them were inspired by Sappho, and in turn inspired one another to move, act, shake the world, and turn the status quo on its head.

These are women who didn’t conform to gender roles and expectations, who loved other women, who spoke out and inspired the women and queer people around them. The novel is told out of order, in small vignettes that traces these lives over and again; we move through time and across borders to paint a picture of change, growth and love. Beautiful, genius, and perfect.

Buy a copy of After Sappho here!

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

Translated from the Mandarin by Bonnie Huie

Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile is a few things: it is one of the quintessential Taiwanese novels of the twentieth century; it is also one of the most prominent and powerful lesbian novels of the past few decades. Separated into a series of notebooks, Notes of a Crocodile tracks the university years of a queer Taiwanese student who goes by the name Lazi.

Lazi is tormented by her love for a woman in the year above; their relationship is tumultuous and aggressive. She also spends time in queer circles populated by other emotionally unhealthy young people. This is a visceral tale of personal hatred and acceptance, of love and lust and danger. Reminiscent of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human, this Taiwanese novel rips you apart unapologetically.

Buy a copy of Notes of a Crocodile here

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

Lucky Red is a historical sapphic novel set in the American Wild West of the late 19th century. Our protagonist, Bridget, is a beautiful young redhead whose childhood was plagued with bad luck, to say the least.

Bridget was raised by her dumb and useless father, who sold their house for nothing much at all. While on the road together, they take shelter and he is bitten and killed by a snake. Alone, Bridget wanders until she reaches the frontier town of Dodge, Kansas. There, she is taken in by the kind women of the Buffalo Queen brothel, where she works and finds a community.

She takes to the work well, enjoys having food and shelter, and builds strong bonds with the other women. And soon enough, she realises that men are work but women are what she loves and craves. Her first crush is a fellow sex worker, and her second is an infamous female gunslinger with whom she falls in deeply in love.

Lucky Red is a sapphic novel about sex, lust, love, and the bonds between women and small communities in a dangerous, difficult, hard world.

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The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

A special and beautifully written book that subtly evokes Scottish folklore while building an original and highly creative world. On a floating circus, in a world divided between those who live on land or at sea, North dances with her beloved bear, betrothed against her will to the ringmaster’s son. However, she’s harboring a secret that could destroy everything.

Meanwhile, Callanish, exiled to a solitary lighthouse, tends to the graves of those lost at sea. A chance encounter sparks a magnetic bond between the two women, offering the promise of a new life together. Perilous waters threaten to tear them apart. If you love theatrical and whimsical books then prepare to fall in love with this novel and its vibrant and endearing ensemble.

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Love Me Tender by Constance Debré

Translated from the French by Holly James

Like so many great sapphic and lesbian novels, Love Me Tender is a brash and punk piece of lesbian liberation.

Our protagonist is forty-seven, and three years ago she separated from her husband of twenty years when she realised she was gay. Now, she lives in a small studio flat in Paris, spending her days swimming, reading, getting new tattoos, writing in cafes, and sleeping with women. A life of freedom and hedonism.

What complicates this is the fact that she has a son, Paul, whom her homophobic ex-husband is weaponising against her. At just 160 pages, Love Me Tender is a novel that explores queer liberation and the ways in which heteronormativity, bigotry, traditionalism, and family can all feel like ghosts, shackles, stalkers, and abusers.

Our protagonist is a complex woman; from one angle she seems selfishly carefree, and is clearly suffering for that. From another, she’s enjoying her lesbian liberation. This is punk literature, through and through, and one of the most raw and exciting lesbian novels of recent years.

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Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Pizza Girl is a coming-of-age story about an 18-year-old pregnant pizza delivery girl named Pizza Girl (she is never given a real name) who becomes obsessed with a stay-at-home mom named Jenny whom she delivers pizza to.

When we meet Pizza Girl, she is grieving the death of her alcoholic father, avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future. She feels more in common with her dead father than she does with anyone else in her life.

As Pizza Girl and Jenny’s relationship deepens, she begins to question her own identity. She is attracted to Jenny, but she is also deeply afraid of becoming her. She sees in Jenny the future that she herself could have if she doesn’t make some changes in her life. This novel beautifully explores themes of identity, motherhood, obsession, grief, and loss and you truly feel devasted for her as the book goes on.

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Boulder by Eva Baltasar

Translated from the Catalan by Julia Sanches

Accomplished and celebrated Catalan poet Eva Baltasar has here written a raw and tender novella about love and pain, and how too often they are one and the same.

Our protagonist, nicknamed Boulder by her geologist girlfriend, spends her days floating from job to job. She’s a cook, and when we meet her she’s working on a ship at sea. Boulder is cold and uncaring; she’s as harsh and unforgiving as the sea upon which she currently works. But when she meets Samsa, she softens and gives into her lust and love for her.

The two move to Reykjavik, and Boulder eventually finds some success opening up a Spanish food truck. Life is solid, good, reliable, stable. Until Samsa, almost forty, insists that she wants a child and it must happen now, before it’s too late for her. Boulder doesn’t want to lose her, so she gives in and agrees.

We watch Boulder struggle with having a pregnant partner, and later a child she never wanted. This sapphic novel is told entirely from the perspective of Boulder, as a kind of diary, as she does nothing but voice her thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

It’s a sensual novel, but also a painfully raw and angry one. Queer and punk, this is one of the most harrowing and powerful lesbian novels you’re ever likely to read.

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Mrs. S by K. Patrick

Set in an old-fashioned boarding school, Mrs. S tells the story of a nameless Australian who has moved to England for work. There, she meets the headmaster’s wife, the titular Mrs. S, and begins a journey of growing obsession.

Our protagonist is unsure of herself. She wears a binder and enjoys being seen as masculine, but she doesn’t have the language to express how she feels or what she wants for herself. She identifies as a lesbian and begins to see Mrs. S as more than an object of obsession — perhaps this beautiful, charming woman might be able to guide our protagonist to her true self, unlock something in her.

Mrs. S has a very specific and rare style of presentation: run-on sentences and paragraphs that don’t differentiate between narration and dialogue.

Characters are named for their jobs and no proper nouns are used. The all-female school’s student body is described as a faceless mass which K. Patrick simply refers to as The Girls. This makes the characters and setting feel as though they are floating in a vacuum, outside of time and space. This is a nowhere place in which our protagonist is trapped, trying to understand herself and what she wants.

Her obsession with Mrs. S grows. She is lustful, jealous, curious, and eager to know this woman better, despite not knowing herself at all. Mrs. S is an answer, a distraction, a muse, so many things to her. There are few novels as captivating, intimate, claustrophobic, and sensual as Mrs. S; a true modern masterpiece amongst the best sapphic and lesbian novels.

Buy a copy of Mrs. S here!

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

Queer Dutch author Johanna van Veen’s My Darling Dreadful Thing is a work of gothic heartache. This sapphic horror-tinged drama will rip you apart in more ways than one. The novel follows Roos, a young woman barely out of girlhood, who has been working as a medium at her mother’s seances. While her mother is a cruel charlatan, Roos really does have a connection to the spirit world in the form of her ghostly companion, Ruth.

But when Roos meets Agnes—a young widow mourning the loss of her husband—the two form a quick bond and Agnes pays Roos’ mother to have Roos as her own companion at her crumbling estate. There, Roos discovers that Agnes has her own spirit companion, as well as a few dark secrets. And between chapters we read doctor/patient transcripts from after the events of the novel, which reveal that Agnes will not last the novel, and Roos is on trial.

The gothic elements of this story are turned up to eleven, with ever single gothic checkbox being ticked, and what makes this a real dramatic masterpiece is the intense, painful longing that Roos and Agnes grow to feel for each other. Their love blossoms through the novel but it is a flower blooming in a murky, ghost-infested place.

Chlorine by Jade Song

Chlorine is a sapphic coming-of-age story inspired by the author’s own experience as a competitive swimmer.

Our protagonist, Ren, is a Chinese-American girl with a deep love for swimming. We learn from the beginning that she is telling her story after having somehow transformed into a mermaid. We follow Ren as she grows through her teen years, experiencing puberty, sex, depression, friendship, and crises. All the while her friend Cathy, who holds a deep romantic love for Ren, remains by her side.

Occasionally, the narrative switches to Cathy’s perspective, expressed via letters which she has been casting out to sea in the hopes that they will reach the mermaid Ren.

The build up to Ren’s supposed transformation is one fraught with feelings of pain, stress, disappointment, dysphoria, violence, and more. The metaphor being played with can be interpreted in a variety of ways, as one which explores a general sense of truth and honesty, or more specifically feelings of dysphoria, sexual repression, and freedom from society.

This is a raw and difficult coming-of-age story, a tale of sapphic love and self-hatred. A story of frustration and pain; a difficult read that tackles many difficult themes with honesty and empathy.

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Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Melissa Broder leads the charge of unlikeable protagonists and difficult characters, especially amongst women writers. Historically, men are allowed to be unlikeable. Nobody bats an eye when male characters behave in an unlikeable way; and yet Melissa Broder stirs up a lot of ill feelings in certain readers by simply making her women complex, broken, selfish, distant, and difficult.

After the success of The Pisces, she brought us Milk Fed, one of the most daring and original lesbian novels of the last few years.

Milk Fed‘s protagonist is Rachel, a young Jewish woman from New Jersey who lives in LA and works at a talent agency while spending her nights doing stand-up comedy. Rachel has a lot of mummy issues that have instilled in her a lifelong and crippling obsession with calorie counting and weight watching.

Soon, Rachel meets Miriam: an overweight orthodox Jewish woman who loves food and loves her family. She is everything Rachel isn’t, and she soon becomes an unhealthy obsession for Rachel. Rachel lusts after Miriam, is inspired by her attitude towards life, and builds fantasies of sexual desire around her.

Milk Fed is one of the most daring and exciting lesbian novels of recent years.

Watch our full video review of Milk Fed

Buy a copy of Milk Fed here!

X by Davey Davis

X is a sexy, kinky noir story about a non-binary lesbian searching the clubs and dungeons of Brooklyn for the elusive, enigmatic X. Our protagonist, Lee, spends their days working a corporate job and their nights going to punk shows, hooking up with people, and engaging in some amateur sadism.

Despite being a dom, Lee had a particularly exciting masochistic encounter with X a few weeks ago, and now they can think of nothing else but finding X again. However, the US government is systematically deporting immigrants, refugees, and queers, and Lee has heard rumour that X is about to be deported as well.

We spend the novel getting to know Lee, their life, their friends, their kinks, and their childhood traumas, all while we follow them on their hunt for X. This is a very exciting book amongst lesbian novels that really leans on kink. It’s bleak at times, occasionally funny, and unapologetically raw.

Buy a copy of X here!

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

Biography of X is an insightful and harrowing exploration of narcissism and its devastating impact on the lives of others, set against a dystopian backdrop that enriches the story and provides a unique perspective on the protagonist’s development.

After X, a renowned artist and writer, dies suddenly, her widow CM sets out to write a biography, uncovering a Pandora’s box of secrets and betrayals as she goes. We viscerally experience the obsession, disbelief, and anger CM feels as she uncovers X’s hidden past from her collaborations with Bowie and Waits to her hidden past in the fascist Southern Territory.

Biography of X is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love, introducing us to an unforgettable character who shows us the fallibility of the stories we craft for ourselves. While the pacing occasionally lags, the novel remains a compelling and thought-provoking read, and is a must for fans of challenging sapphic literature.

Buy a copy of Biography of X here

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

Translated from the Norwegian by Marjam Idriss

Written by internationally acclaimed Norwegian musician Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot is a short, visceral, sensual novel about desire, temptation, and the human body. Textured, loud, coarse, and raw, Paradise Rot obsesses over the beautiful and the gross aspects of the female form: what it’s made of, what it creates, how it thrives, and how it decays.

Our protagonist is a young Norwegian woman named Jo who has just moved to a new country to attend university. She moves into a converted brewery and lives with a local woman. This shared space has no real borders; flimsy plywood walls create half-formed rooms and secrecy is non-existent.

These women obsess over each other, give into temptation, make each other jealous, and sexually awaken in each other’s company. This novel is alive, pulling the senses into focus and demanding your attention, even as it behaves in an alluringly crass and gross way. A truly addictive lesbian novel.

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Solo Dance by Li Kotomi

Translated from the Japanese by Arthur Reiji Morris

Few lesbian novels hit as hard as Solo Dance. Written by Taiwanese-born, Japan-based author Li Kotomi, Solo Dance follows a similar protagonist. Cho Norie grew up in Taiwan and left for Tokyo to pursue a master’s degree, learn the language, and get a job.

However, Norie is horribly depressed, carries heavy trauma, and obsesses over death. She reads the works of novelists who took their own lives and struggles to hide her sexuality for fear of being harassed. As a child, Norie lost a friend. At university, she suffered abuse. Now, as an adult working a corporate job in Tokyo, she struggles with day-to-day life as a lesbian immigrant in Japan.

If you are a queer person who has ever suffered (or feared) abuse, you will relate strongly to Norie and her experiences. You’ll find in her a companion, and perhaps even catharsis through how she struggles and grows and lives.

Solo Dance is not an easy book to read, but it is an extremely rewarding one. It illuminates, especially to cishet readers, the eggshells that LGBTQ+ people walk on every day. It also leans towards hope in the third act, but you have to go through a lot to get there.

Ultimately, queer readers who have faced depression and anxiety will find a friend and a companion in Norie. Solo Dance is one of the best lesbian novels you’ll ever read. Thank you, Li Kotomi.

Buy a copy of Solo Dance here!

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

A Dowry of Blood is a gothic romance for the ages. S.T. Gibson has gifted us the story of the cursed marriage between Dracula and his bride Constanta.

We learn on the very first page that Constanta will eventually kill her sire, but we must read on to see how this happens, and the centuries that pass in the meantime. This is a novel dripping with blood, love, and lust. Animal aggression and burning passion.

Soon enough, a second bride joins their marriage. a Spanish woman who becomes a source of burning desire for Constanta. She loves her like nobody else, and it’s their love that plays a part in Dracula’s undoing. The love, lust, and longing laced into this novel is spectacular. There is so much hate and spite and venom to enjoy as well, as with any good gothic romance.

Buy a copy of A Dowry of Blood here!

Night Shift by Kiare Ladner

In Night Shift, author Kiare Ladner paints a gritty picture of late-90s London. Here’s one of the grimiest and gnarly lesbian novels you’re likely to read; fiercely literary and often bleak, Night Shift will twist you as you grow more and more obsessed with its characters and their lives.

Our protagonist is Meggie, a young woman who presumes herself straight until she falls into an obsessive and unhealthy friendship with sexy Belgian Sabine. Meggie works night shifts and spends as much of her days as possible with her boyfriend, Graham, but Sabine steadily shows Meggie a different side of London, work, and life. Meggie is happy to go along for the ride as she questions and explores her sexuality.

Sabine represents possibility, mystery, new experiences, and a new way for Meggie to spend her days. She is intoxicating and illuminating. She is everything Meggie didn’t know she wanted to be, could be, and might yet be. Night Shift is one of the harshest, raw, and punk lesbian novels of today.

Buy a copy of Night Shift here!

Read More: Best Queer Graphic Novels and Manga

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is one of the boldest and most beautiful lesbian novels. Sara Collins’ debut novel is an homage to the gothic classics while also representing a bright and exciting new direction for the gothic genre as she places a Black lesbian front and centre.

This is a piece of genre fiction that gives readers everything they could want: an enticing mystery, an epic tale of freedom and love, an exciting historical context, an homage to the Brontës, and a tragic lesbian love story led by gothic fiction’s first Black female protagonist.

The titular Frannie Langton was born on a plantation in Jamaica, where she learns to read and write. From there, she moves to London and works in the house of a rich couple. After falling in love with Mrs Benham, however, she is put on trial for her murder. But did she do it? This is her story; these are the confessions of Frannie Langton.

Buy a copy of The Confessions of Frannie Langton here!

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

Bloom is a hypnotic descent from alluring sapphic romance into paranoid gothic terror. This short novel begins with a series of chapters in which our young professor protagonist finds herself drawn to a woman who sells her wares—cupcakes, soap, and more—at a farmer’s market. But as these women enter into an electrified and subtly toxic relationship, the darkness starts to creep in, looming and humming at the edges.

Ro went through a bad breakup with a guy in New York, and now she’s taken an assistant professor role at a small town university, and it’s there that she meets Ash, who lives in an isolated farmhouse that she inherited from her grandmother. This is Ro’s first experience of a lesbian relationship, and it’s exciting, but Ash is controlling and secretive. There are places Ro mustn’t go and rules she must follow.

The hows and whys of Ash’s behaviour are kept close to the chest until the eleventh hour, and all the while we watch on, unblinking, as this gothic drama of sapphic love and toxic tension unfolds. It is wonderfully refreshing to read a sapphic book with a toxic relationship that spirals into something truly terrifying at the end of it all.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

An abstract and beautifully lyrical sapphic love story unfolding through unique letters sent across time and space.

Two rival agents named Red and Blue come from opposite sides of warring factions of a time war and fall in love through the course of this novella. Their love grows through taunting letters that they leave for each other, and these letters appear anywhere and everywhere; from Shakespeare’s London to a far-flung alien war between warring mechs.

This is How You Lose the Time War is highly poetic and may not be for you if you prefer a structured plot and world-building, but this unstructured approach lends itself well to emphasising the fractured yearning and tenderness between these two agents.

The co-writing of This is How You Lose the Time War also means that the two agents have very distinct voices and personalities which makes their love all the more endearing. Beyond being a warming sapphic love story, this is also one of the best sci-fi novels of all time.

Buy a copy of How You Lose the Time War here!

The Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Winner of numerous awards, this beloved poignant lesbian novel is set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954, during the Red Scare, when openly exploring queerness isn’t an option.

Protagonist Lily secretly gathers photos of women with masculine qualities, is drawn toward ‘unfeminine; clothing and interests, and slowly recognises her lesbianism with her budding connection to Kathleen Miller, a white classmate. Last Night at the Telegraph Club seamlessly incorporates cultural touchstones and places with historic Chinese American significance alongside a beautiful and touching sapphic love story.

The inclusion of Mandarin and Cantonese language in the text with footnote translations was also a nice touch.

Buy a copy of Last Night at the Telegraph Club here!

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Translated from the Spanish by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre

In the great library of lesbian novels, never has there been such a glorious, unshackled celebration of queer love. The Adventures of China Iron is an Argentinian novel that laughs in the face of patriarchy and heteronormativity. It is a wild and wonderful ride from beginning to end.

The titular China Iron is still young, yet she has seen much tragedy. She was married to and then abandoned by a singer. She gave birth at age fourteen and gave her children up. Now, her story begins anew. At the novel’s outset, China meets Liz, a Scottish woman exploring the plains of Argentina. The two quickly fall deeply in love and head out on a wild journey together.

The Adventures of China Iron celebrates lesbian love, sex, and intimacy. It shrugs off the touch of men and shows the reader just how beautiful and alive queer love is. Few lesbian novels were written to be guiltlessly enjoyed this much. What a work of art.

Read our full written review of The Adventures of China Iron

Buy a copy of The Adventure of China Iron here!

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

Currently the only work featuring a lesbian relationship written by a woman to win a Pulitzer, this epistolary novel is a true classic that spans twenty years of protagonist Celie’s life.

It’s a beautifully written and important novel that can be difficult to read at times due to the subject matter, while explicitly a lesbian novel The Color Purple also tackles race, class, gender, sexual assault, domestic abuse, religion, and the South in the early 1900s.

Told through a series of letters to ‘God’ (and later her sister Nettie in Africa), Celie is fourteen at the beginning of the novel and is being physically and sexually abused by her father — she is desperately trying to protect her sister from a similar fate.

Later we are privy to the events of Celie’s abusive forced marriage to ‘Mister’ and also her developing relationship with Shug, Mister’s mistress, who shows her love and intimacy for the first time. It’s a very human book that will definitely stay with you.

Buy a copy of The Color Purple here!

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

One of the most popular Sarah Waters novels for good reason, the twists and turns in this book just don’t let up and just when you think you have a handle on what is going on, the rug is pulled from under your feet. If you have seen Park Chan’Wook’s Handmaiden film which is based on Fingersmith and think you will be prepared for the events of this novel don’t be fooled, the film deviates from the book in a big way at the end of part one.

This is an addictive read and at no point feels slow despite being a bigger novel. Protagonist Sue Trinder is raised by a group of scam artists in Victorian London and finds herself drafted into a plan to steal a fortune from an unmarried, rich young woman named Maud Lilly.

Things are never as straightforward as they seem, however. If you enjoy historical fiction or simply want a lesbian novel with endless backstabbing, revenge, and twists then Fingersmith is the one for you.

Buy a copy of Fingersmith here!

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

Adapted liberally from Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (below) S.T. Gibson’s An Education in Malice is an exciting work of sapphic, vampiric dark academia. When the novel opens, its protagonist, Laura Sheridan, has moved to rural Massachusetts to attend the isolated Saint Perpetua’s College, and in her poetry class she meets the professor she will develop a deep obsession with—a woman named De Lafontaine—and the girl who will quickly become her rival.

This rival is Carmilla, De Lafontaine’s pet (in more ways than are initially implied). Aggravating Carmilla, Laura proves to be a formidable poet, and this is enough to snatch De Lafontaine’s attention from her. Competition for the professor’s affections grows more complicated with the revelation that De Lafontaine is a vampire, and soon the rivalry will flip on its head completely.

An Education in Malice is a sapphic enemies-to-lovers narrative in a teasingly oppressive dark academia setting. The kind of blood-soaked romance that you’ll find yourself unable to look away from.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

From the author of the highly successful Red, White & Royal Blue, we have another light-hearted and witty romance novel that successfully captures the fizzing energy of meeting someone for the first time and knowing that they are your person.

Unfortunately, when August meets Jane on the subway, it is not a straightforward romance since Jane is displaced in time from the 1970s and August has to help her. The interesting concept of One Last Stop offers a lot of insight into historic queer culture across the US during the 70s and keeps you hooked as you get more and more invested in a happy ending for these cute lovers.

Buy a copy of One Last Stop here!

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

Alexis Henderson’s second novel House of Hunger is a tumble into a frightening gothic fantasy world that gently shifts from grim and gory to sexy and sapphic as the pages turn.

Set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Victorian Britain, our protagonist Marion is a twenty-year-old maid living in the slums of a smog-filled city. Sick of her work as a maid to a cruel woman, and going home each night to a sick and cruel brother, she answers an advertisement for a new blood maid.

Blood maids are women who serve the powerful houses of the North, where counts and countesses believe that drinking the blood of others can help with their maladies. As she rises through the ranks of blood maids at the House of Hunger, the relationship between Marion and her countess blossoms into something far more intimate and romantic, though it remains frightening and unstable.

Buy a copy of House of Hunger here!

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

A lesbian book list wouldn’t be complete without another offering from Sarah Waters, just as beloved as Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet is another historical novel set in the late Victorian period.

The setting of this novel is delicious, treating us to an imagined lesbian cabaret underworld as we follow Nancy from the sleepy seaside town of Whistable to London as she pursues her lover Kitty. This book has a real sense of place, and it’s difficult not to be fully present in the world Sarah is creating even if you are not fully invested in the characters who can be unlikeable at times.

Buy a copy of Tipping the Velvet here!

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

Published more than two decades before Stoker’s Dracula Le Fanu’s Carmilla was not only the first great vampire novel, it was also a daring work of sapphic gothic fiction. This short and tense novel opens with a genuinely unsettling chapter, establishing the bleak and empty world of its protagonist, Laura, before introducing us to her soon-to-be playmate and predator, the titular Carmilla.

Carmilla is left at Laura’s father’s castle by her mother, and while she is there she develops a deep bond with our protagonist. They play and explore, and soon Carmilla openly admits her love and affection for Laura. But there is something dark and monstrous lurking just beneath the surface.

Carmilla works both as a campy work of gothic fiction and as a truly chilling piece of 19th century horror fiction. And the sapphic mood created by the tension between Carmilla and Laura is nothing short of intense.

These Oscar Wilde quotes, from his various plays, stories, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and from his everyday life, all demonstrate that with boldness and clarity.

Wilde was known for his boundless wit and wisdom; his ability to express thoughtful, enlightening statements through a beautiful mastery of language.

It is almost impossible to praise Oscar Wilde’s use and command over the English language, and the ways in which he put those talents to use.

He taught as much as he entertained. He understood people on the deepest level, and these Oscar Wilde quotes show that every thought he ever had still resonates today.

Every isolated quote from Oscar Wilde can feel like a lesson or a way to feel inspired. Inspired to live, to create, to be yourself. He had such power and his expressed that power through words.

Enjoy these beautiful, wise, sometimes laugh-out-loud Oscar Wilde quotes for what they are: the best examples of the English language.

Read More: Beautiful Shakespeare Quotes

The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes

Here is a selection of impeccable, hilarious, wise, and witty Oscar Wilde quotes taken from his one and only novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray, now heralded as one of the classics of the English language.

This is a gothic novel with an almost inexhaustible number of beautiful and quotable lines. We urge you to read it multiple times to soak up all of its humour and wisdom.

These Oscar Wilde quotes are but a taste of what the full novel has to offer.

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

“When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”

“Some things are more precious because they don’t last long.”

“To define is to limit.”

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”

“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.”

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”

“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

“Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn’t there, and finding it.”

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”

“Selfishness is not living your life as you wish to live it. Selfishness is wanting others to live their lives as you wish them to.”

“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”

“Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.”

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”

Buy a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray here!

Oscar Wilde Quotes

These are Oscar Wilde quotes spoken by the writer himself. Wilde was known for expressing his wit and wisdom on the fly and out loud, as much as he was through letters and fiction.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

“I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.”

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“I am not young enough to know everything.”

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”

“Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.”

“Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”

“A good friend will always stab you in the front.”

“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”

“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

“Everyone may not be good, but there’s always something good in everyone.”

Oscar Wilde’s Play Text & Short Story Quotes

These Oscar Wilde quotes all originate in the writer’s various fairy stories and beloved play texts, including the iconic The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere’s Fan.

As Wilde himself said about portraits being of the painter, not the sitter, the characters in his plays and stories spoke his wit and wisdom; they were vessels for his genius.

Read More: Iconic Jane Austen Quotes

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

— Lady Windermere’s Fan

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”

― Lady Windermere’s Fan

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

― The Importance of Being Earnest

“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”

― The Importance of Being Earnest

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

― The Importance of Being Earnest

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”

― The Importance of Being Earnest

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

― An Ideal Husband

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”

― An Ideal Husband

“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”

— The Happy Prince

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”

― The Canterville Ghost

From timeless classics to modern love stories, and spicy tales these romance books cater to every taste, whisking you away on unforgettable journeys through the complexities of human connection. As you immerse yourself in these enchanting tales, you’ll discover why these romantic novels (including queer romance novels) have earned their place among the most beloved and cherished works of fiction.

The Best Romance Books from Around the World

Make yourself comfortable, let the warmth of these stories from around the world envelop you, and prepare to embark on a literary adventure that will leave you yearning for more.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

As classic romance novels go, North and South is an oft-overlooked masterpiece of the genre. A 19^th Century love story set against the very prominent backdrop of the British Industrial Revolution.

In the northern factory town of Milton, the love story follows a refined young southern woman named Margaret Hale who arrives in Milton and struggles with the town’s industrial way of life.

One of the captains of the industry, and our love interest, is Mr Thornton, a crass and aggressively spoken northern man who owns a cotton factory.

The love story here is very reminiscent of that between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, only with the added political vigour that examines the class divide between, well, north and south – a divide that still continues to this day.

North and South also has one of the best TV miniseries adaptations ever filmed, starring the smouldering Richard Armitage as Mr Thornton. Definitely give it a watch!

Beach Read by Emily Henry

From the author of Book Lovers, Beach Read follows the story of two struggling writers, Augustus Everett, a literary fiction author, and January Andrews, a bestselling romance novelist, who find themselves as neighbors in beach houses for the summer.

With their careers stalled by writer’s block, they strike a deal to break free from their creative ruts: Augustus will write a happy story, while January attempts the next Great American Novel.

As they embark on unconventional field trips and challenge each other’s writing styles, they try to stick to their pact that no one will fall in love.

This heartwarming and witty tale explores the unexpected paths to creativity and the power of embracing new perspectives while offering a satisfying enemies-to-lovers romance.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Predictable as it might be, Jane Eyre is undeniably one of the greatest romance novels ever written and bound.

The Bronte sisters were a unique flavour amongst their contemporaries, providing us with raw, often brutal, always sublime gothic and romance novels that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is an absolute treasure, and a classic romance novel that, in terms of its pacing, hasn’t aged a day. A punchy love story fraught with aggression and tempestuous shifts in tone, Jane Eyre is flawless.

Our titular narrator Jane Eyre is a girl orphaned at a young age, living with her uncle’s family. Her childhood is not pleasant, but when she eventually finds a chance at work as a governess.

The job takes her to Thornfield Hall and the enigmatic Mr Rochester, master of the house. Their story is not a smooth one; instead it is intense, fiery, and at times frightening – filled with twists and turns that make it a true classic and one of the very best romance books – indeed one of the very best Western novels – ever written.

Read More: 14 Books like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

If you like your romance novels to be heavy on the lust, and to have a fantastical element to them, you need to read A Dowry of Blood.

This gothic romance is written from the perspective of Dracula’s bride, Constanta; how he saved her, how she fell in love with him, and how (centuries later), she killed him.

A Dowry of Blood is gothic romance done perfectly. These are people driven by love and lust and a thirst for blood. They hate and curse each other but cannot live without each other.

Cursed love, burning desire, sensuality — these things drive the novel forward and it is glorious to watch.

Read More: 15 Best Modern French Novels

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

Kitty Garstin has gone through several failed attempts at love and marriage before arriving in a sudden and loveless marriage with the bacteriologist Walter Fane.

Most of the novel is set in mainland China, where Fane has placed himself in the thick of a cholera epidemic with a view to studying the disease and helping its dying victims.

It’s a tragic setting, and it doesn’t tick any boxes regarding typical romance books. But the beauty and genius of the romance in this novel comes in the form of Kitty learning to love her new husband through observing his actions and the risks he takes, and he likewise learning to appreciate the help that she offers.

It’s not a love story for the faint of heart, and certainly not a typical romance novel, but The Painted Veil is nonetheless a unique and incredible work of fiction, and one of the great romance books of its time.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I don’t care what you say; there is no way to have a discussion about the best romance books and not mention Pride and Prejudice.

In fact, confession time: I only read this book recently, shortly before turning 30, which might be illegal – I haven’t checked. But it was reading Pride and Prejudice that inspired this list, so here we are.

Pride and Prejudice is as good as everyone says. In fact, it’s better. A lot of the discourse gets lost in a loop of praise being helped on it for being one of the great romance novels.

But it’s more than that: Pride and Prejudice is a sharp, witty, sarcastic, biting, scathing, sardonic gem on a novel that relentlessly pokes fun at everything from the class system to patriarchal values; from stuffy English tradition to family life.

There are few books of their time as funny, clever, and scathing as Pride and Prejudice. And what makes it even more perfect is that there lies a truly perfect romantic tale beneath all of this scorn.

The story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy really is as compelling, engaging, and captivating as everyone says.

If you’ve been put off from reading Pride and Prejudice due to too much hype, let all of that go and read it.  It is one of the best romance books, classic or otherwise.

Read More: 10 Great Books for Fans of Normal People

At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano

Translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter

At the End of the Matinee is a curious romance novel. Written by a man with a view to being international, while also evoking the tone and tropes of 19th Century English novels like Jane Eyre and the works of Jane Austen, there’s nothing quite like this Japanese romance novel.

The story follows two protagonists: a man approaching forty who works as an internationally celebrated classical guitarist, and a woman in her early forties who is a respected journalist living in Paris.

He is touted as a musical genius, and she is the daughter of a Japanese woman and a Croatian film director. Both are fascinating people.

They meet after one of his concerts in Tokyo and, while she is engaged to an American man whom she has known for many years, the two become infatuated with one another.

They travel, work, and find their fates entangled.

At the End of the Matinee is a will-they-won’t-they love story that uses classical romance tropes while also innovating with its characters and setting.

Gorgeously translated by the outstanding Juliet Winters Carpenter, this is a modern classic of a Japanese romance novel.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

When it first came out, the hype around this book could not be ignored, particularly as it originally started as a Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) AU fanfic.

The Love Hypothesis revolves around Olive Smith, a third-year Ph.D. candidate who doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships.

To convince her best friend Anh otherwise, Olive impulsively kisses the first man she sees: Adam Carlsen, a young, attractive, and notoriously difficult professor.

Surprisingly, Adam agrees to be her fake boyfriend and maintain the charade.

However, when a critical science conference threatens Olive’s career, Adam’s unwavering support brings their pretend relationship dangerously close to combustion.

In this charming and addictive story, Olive learns that love is far more complicated than any scientific hypothesis, and understanding her own heart proves to be the most challenging experiment of all.

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

There is a lot of love and romance in Greek mythology, and a lot of jealousy and betrayal, too. Psyche and Eros stands out, however, by being a love story first and foremost.

This is the talle of a god and a human falling in love, against all odds. Psyche, princess of Mycenae, trained to fight and hunt by the argonaut Atalanta, is swept up in a romance with Eros, the god of love himself.

The novel’s opening chapters establish who our two protagonists are, and Eros’ chapters in particular paint a picture of how the gods came to be. The story of Gaia, Kronos, Zeus, and all the messiness they wrought.

When Aphrodite, who has forced Eros into her servitude, orders him to curse a beautiful human woman, the god of love makes a careless mistake and curses himself by mistake. That curse causes him to love Psyche.

Not just love her, but to have her wrenched from him if ever she looks at him.

Psyche and Eros pits the cursed titular protagonists against an entire world of gods and humans.

Greece and Troy are on the brink of war; the gods are, as usual, committing cruelties our of jealousy and bitterness, and our lovers must wade through all of this while dealing with a curse that will destroy their love forever.

Buy a copy of Psyche and Eros here!

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell

On its surface, this Japanese novel concerns an odd and unique slowly blossoming romance between a disenchanted salary woman in Tokyo and an older man: a former schoolteacher whom she chances to meet once again as an adult.

The story of Tsukiko and Sensei is truly one of the ages: a rough and turbulent story that is often battered by the winds of change.

This is because, on a deeper level, Strange Weather in Tokyo is about finding an equilibrium between the lost Japan of old – the pre-war Japan of ancient traditions which Sensei hailed from – and the modern, fast-paced, fast-paced, neon-lit Japan of today which Tsukiko represents.

What makes their love story work so elegantly is how each protagonist supports and teaches the other: Tsukiko is exhausted by modern life, and her love for Sensei helps her appreciate a slower, calmer pace.

Meanwhile, Tsukiko ensures that Sensei doesn’t get washed away by the waves of modern life.

Read More: Our Review of Strange Weather in Tokyo

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus

One of the best things about Kitchen – something that stands out amongst other romance books – is that it was so ahead of its time. Or, at least, it was courageously of its time when most other books and movies fail to be.

Kitchen follows the tragic life of Mikage Sakurai, a young woman raised by her grandmother who, after the loss of said grandmother, finds a home with a young man: Yuichi Tanabe.

What makes this novel so ahead of its time isn’t the romance between these two characters, but rather the role of Yuichi’s transgender mother, who is easily the novel’s most complex and compelling character.

The love story in this Japanese novel is not an easy one. Death obstructs love at every turn, and Yoshimoto never loses sight of her protagonists being young, growing, and grieving people.

Read More: Our Review of Kitchen

XOXO by Axie Oh

This wholesome YA novel XOXO centres on Jenny, a dedicated cellist who unexpectedly falls for Jaewoo, a K-pop idol, after a chance meeting in Los Angeles.

Their paths cross again in Seoul when Jenny attends an elite performing arts academy.

With Jaewoo’s dating restrictions as a K-pop star, they must decide if their love is worth risking their careers and friendships.

A contemporary forbidden romance, XOXO will immerse you in the K-pop industry and make you fall in love with Seoul through sumptuous descriptions of food and surroundings,

Read More: 12 Best K-Pop Novels

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder

This choice is perhaps a bit of a sneaky one, because while The Housekeeper and the Professor can and should be called a novel about love, it is not a love story.

The titular professor is an aged mathematician who is incapable of retaining long-term information. He goes through housekeepers like toilet paper because none can stand the stress of working for him for long.

His newest housekeeper, and our protagonist, is a single mother with enough kindness and patience to form a bond with this difficult and troubled genius.

Thus, in the professor, our protagonist finds an indispensable friend, and her son finds a pseudo-father figure in a man who forgets him from one day to the next. Romantic, no, but a story about love. Absolutely.

Read More: Our Review of The Housekeeper and the Professor

Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue

Translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen

Consider Love in the New Millennium the wild card of this list. A deeply satirical, surreal, and subversive novel about modern life for a group of women in today’s China.

In writing a book that so confidently satirises daily life in China, Can Xue took some bold risks.

While it isn’t a book about a single romance, Love in the New Millennium is nevertheless a book about love, romance, sex, and relationships.

It examines how we love one another in an age of surveillance and transience. It looks at what shapes romance and love can take in the modern age.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Sarah J Maas is the queen of YA fantasy. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or just someone with a passing knowledge of it, you’ll know the name Sarah J Maas.

Skyrocketed to fame by her series Throne of Glass, she has worn the crown ever since. Her series A Court of Thorns and Roses (which begins with the novel of the same name) begins with protagonist Feyre — a forest-dwelling hunter — fighting and killing a wolf for its prey.

The wolf, however, turns out to be a faerie, and Feyre must pay for its murder. This event thrusts Feyre into the twisted and mythic faerie world which she must help save from an ancient curse.

An intense love between two dark characters; a folklore-inspired world of fairies, magic, and curses, a young and beautiful but deadly protagonist. What more could you ask for?

The Court Dancer by Kyung-sook Shin

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

The Court Dancer is, in many ways, a modern Korean response to the classic European romance novels.

The Court Dancer is a book that, on the surface, celebrates a chance encounter and the blossoming love and passion which emerges from it, but look a little deeper and you’ll find a book that deals with the scars of colonialism and a warning sign against the exoticism and sexualisation of other cultures.

The romance of this clever Korean novel is front and centre: a French diplomat of the 19^th Century has journeyed to Korea during the later years of the Joseon Dynasty.

There, he has fallen quickly and passionately for a young woman who has already seen so much upheaval and personal tragedy – a young woman now serving as a court dancer.

Whisked away to France with her new love, our court dancer must learn to understand her place in the world, her newfound romance, and what home means. And all of that is before the scathing exploration of European colonialism takes centre stage.

Essential Queer Romance Novels

Diversity and representation in literature have never been more important, and the realm of romance novels is no exception.

Our selection of the best queer romance books showcases the beauty and complexity of love in all its forms, transcending boundaries and celebrating the power of connection.

These stories capture the hearts of readers with their unforgettable characters and heartwarming relationships

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

Love in the Big City could fall under the “Asian Romance Novels” and “Queer Romance Novels” since it’s both. But, like many of the romance novels on this list, actually calling it romance is a little messy.

Though, make no mistake, this is a Korean novel about love.

First, it’s about platonic love — the love between two hedonistic best friends at university, enjoying all the flavours of life: food, alcohol, cigarettes, and sex.

But, after a time, one grows up and gets married, leaving the other — our protagonist — to choose how he is going to live his own young, gay, good life.

Love in the Big City also explores familial love through the relationship between Young and his mother, before finally leaning into romantic love as he lets himself fall in love in his own way.

This love is difficult, rocky, and harsh, but it is still love and it is still romance. Sometimes.

This novel does not shy away from the shadows of love and romance, which is what makes it so earnest and beautiful as a queer romance novel.

There is so much here that is cruel and nasty, but a love for life and for people wins out in the end.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This is a beautiful, poetic piece of science fiction lesbian romance. A short and tender novel that blends intense sci-fi world-building with lyrical moments of romantic expression between two agents of warring factions.

Our protagonists, Red and Blue, are two women working for different agencies of a far future, in which they fight for control of time itself.

The two agents leave letters for one another, at first as flirtatious taunts, and soon as bold declarations of their love for, and addiction to one another.

This is How You Lose the Time War shifts between chapters detailing what Red or Blue is up to and letters written from one to the other. These letters express passionate, loud statements of adoration that melt your heart.

The fun and complex world-building of this far future only supports the concept that love, the simplest thing to understand, conquers even the most complex ideas.

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Wolfsong, the first in TJ Klune’s Green Creek series of fantasy books, is a novel that answers the question, “What if Twilight was gay and also good?”

Klune is known for blending queer romance with urban fantasy, and this is his most expansive queer romantic fantasy story yet, spanning four lengthy books.

Wolfsong is the first book in that series, and it is predominantly a gay romance between a boy named Ox — who grew up in a small, rural Oregon town — and the youngest son of a pack of werewolves.

Around the time Ox turns sixteen, the Bennett family moves in next door. They are a mother, father, three boys, and the father’s brother.

Ox, whose own father abandoned him, soon learns that the Bennetts are not only shapeshifters, but that his friend and boss, Gordo, already knows them. and that Gordo is also a witch.

Ox and Joe, the youngest of three boys, become tethered together in an intense friendship that soon blossoms into a vicious, feral kind of romance.

Wolfsong is a queer fantasy romance full of bloodshed, revenge, cruelty, and savage love. One of the most intense and best romance books of recent years.

Buy a copy of Wolfsong here!

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This is a uniquely important novel. A queer romance, this is a book that centres around a sexuality often criminally underexposed but nevertheless part of the queer canon: asexuality.

Let’s Talk About Love introduces us to Alice, our asexual protagonist, who is all but done with love and relationships until she meets the handsome and endearing Takumi.

Sweet, approachable, endearing, and fun; Let’s Talk About Love is a fantastic queer romance novel that deserves even more love and attention than it’s already getting.

Read More: Best Queer Graphic Novels and Manga

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

A slow-burn gay romance, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Linus Baker, a solitary Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, is tasked with a top-secret assignment: assessing the potential threat posed by six unique children living in Marsyas Island Orphanage.

As he uncovers the island’s secrets and grows closer to the enigmatic caretaker, Arthur Parnassus, Linus discovers an unexpected family and must choose between destroying their home or risking the world’s end.

This heartwarming tale highlights the power of found family and the profound impact of love and acceptance.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

From the author of the highly successful Red, White & Royal Blue, we have another light-hearted and witty romance novel that successfully captures the fizzing energy of meeting someone for the first time and knowing that they are your person.

Unfortunately, when August meets Jane on the subway, it is not a straightforward romance since Jane is displaced in time from the 1970s and August has to help her.

The interesting concept of One Last Stop offers a lot of insight into historic queer culture across the US during the 70s and keeps you hooked as you get more and more invested in a happy ending for these cute lesbian lovers.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows the story of Monique Grant, an unknown magazine reporter chosen by reclusive Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo to write her biography.

As Monique delves into Evelyn’s glamorous and scandalous life, she uncovers tales of ambition, friendship, and forbidden love spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s.

As the two women form a connection, it becomes apparent that their lives intersect in tragic and irreversible ways.

This captivating novel takes readers on a journey through old Hollywood, exploring the harsh realities of fame and the struggle of confronting the truth, no matter the cost.

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

This is perhaps a controversial choice, especially given that its author is not gay, but it is nonetheless one of the most celebrated modern gay romance novels.

Call Me By Your Name exploded in popularity thanks to its recent film adaptation, but the novel is also beloved by fans worldwide.

The novel follows a summer romance between two young men in 1980s Italy, and the lives of these protagonists over the subsequent fifteen years.

It’s a story of young love and self-discovery that received enormous critical acclaim, as did its film adaptation.

While I have my reservations about a gay romance novel being penned by a straight man, it is nevertheless a novel that resonates with so many, and will surely be heralded as a future classic among gay romance novels.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston’s captivating story demonstrates that true love transcends diplomacy. Red, White & Royal Blue explores the unlikely romance between America’s First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and the Prince of Wales, Henry.

As charismatic and charming as Alex is, his rivalry with Henry threatens to damage U.S./British relations when a tabloid photo exposes their altercation.

In an attempt to control the situation, a staged truce turns into a blossoming secret romance that could derail political campaigns and upend both nations.

This delightful and witty queer romance novel poses the question: can love save the world, and how do we find the courage to embrace our true selves?

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is a witty and steamy queer romantic comedy that follows Delilah Green, a successful photographer who reluctantly returns to her hometown, Bright Falls, to photograph her estranged stepsister Astrid’s wedding.

Upon her return, Delilah encounters Claire Sutherland, Astrid’s reserved best friend and a single mother running a bookstore.

As Delilah becomes entwined in wedding preparations, including a scheme to save Astrid from her terrible fiancé, she discovers unexpected chemistry with Claire.

Despite their differences and Claire’s initial reluctance, the two find themselves drawn to each other, challenging their preconceptions about love and relationships.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

We previously mentioned If I Was Your Girl on our list of trans books by trans writers, and it bears repeating it here on a list of the best romance books for the same reason: it’s spellbinding.

Meredith Russo is a trans woman who took her own experiences and funnelled them into the protagonist of If I Was Your Girl.

In this delightful trans novel, Amanda has moved to a new school and has fallen for a boy named Grant. She has disclosed to no-one, including Grant, the secret that she is trans, and lives in fear of that secret coming out, and what it will mean for her life at her new school and her blossoming romance with Grant.

This is a queer romance story for the ages; a book written by a trans woman about a trans woman, and a book that can help both young trans and cis people alike.

Read More: 9 Transgender Stories by Trans Writers

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

It might still be a very new novel, by The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is a delightfully hedonistic romp of a gay romance novel.

What sets it apart from so many of its contemporaries is how much it enjoys itself; this book is less concerned with sorrowful pining or unrequited love.

Instead, it’s a celebration of romance wrapped up in one of the most delightful historic romance novels of today.

Telling the story of an 18^th Century British lord touring Europe with his best friend for whom he harbours an intense lust.

Over the past few years, however, there has been a colourful shift to queer fantasy and sci-fi books, and books of that genre written by incredible women and authors of colour.

Now, the genres of sci-fi and fantasy are gloriously diverse, with so many novels pushing the boundaries of gender and sexuality in exciting and liberating ways.

Queer authors are bringing new perspectives, new ideas, and fresh eyes to sci-fi and fantasy literature.

So, here are some incredible queer fantasy and queer sci-fi books by LGBTQ authors for you to check out!

Read More: Essential Modern Fantasy Books

Queer Fantasy Books

These queer fantasy books range from alternate histories to mythological retellings via fresh takes on classic fantasy tropes.

These LGBTQ authors are taking new steps into uncharted territory with their amazing queer fantasy books and we all need to be paying attention.

Not only should we be paying attention; we should be revelling in the variety, beauty, and vibrancy of these amazing queer fantasy worlds and characters.

Fantasy books are all about magical spaces, and these queer novels are all, indeed, magical. Enjoy this amazing queer fantasy books.

Read More: The Best Fantasy Books of All Time

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

She Who Became the Sun is a queer fantasy retelling of the life of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in late 14th Century China.

Shelley Parker-Chan’s novel reimagines this founding emperor’s origin story and turns it into something beautifully queer and excitingly clever.

Zhu Yuanzhang was, famously, a peasant before rising to power. He was a monk, then a rebel leader, and finally an emperor. His army defeated the Mongols This is all true.

In She Who Became the Sun, we begin with a peasant family; a father and son are killed, and only the daughter remains.

The son was prophesied to become a legend, and yet he has died, and so the girl takes up that destiny for herself, disguises herself as a man, and becomes a monk.

As her life goes on, her disguise becomes part of her identity; she no longer sees herself as a girl or a boy; both gender identities are true.

This is a beautiful genderqueer exploration of legacy, destiny, and triumph, and one of the most exciting queer fantasy books of recent years.

Buy a copy here!

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Sistersong is Lucy Holland’s debut novel, and it toes the line between historical fiction and queer fantasy.

Here is a mediaeval British novel set during the Saxon invasion of Britain.

We have three siblings: two girls and a third who spends the course of the novel coming to understand his identity as a transgender man.

Their father is king of a small region of England, and the Saxons are knocking at their gates.

While this is, in some ways, a grounded piece of historical fiction, it also features very literal magic and sorcery that brings the fantasy genre to this novel’s pages in a very welcome way.

The exploration of our young trans protagonist is expertly done; given its fantastical and historical setting, words like “trans” and “binary” are not used, but his journey is taken with tact and elegance.

This really is a stunning piece of fiction that blends queer fantasy with the setting and events of a historical epic.

Buy a copy here!

Read More: LGBTQ Bedtime Stories for Children

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon’s fantasy epic, The Priory of the Orange Tree, is one massive self-contained story. It’s a queer fantasy novel that brings dragons back to the forefront of fantasy novels.

This is an intricately plotted, perfectly woven narrative with a broad cast of deep and dynamic characters. It also has a stunning title and cover, which always helps, even superficially.

A truly epic 800-page fantasy novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree follows a colourful collection of diverse characters who are spread far and wide across a massive landscape.

World-building, lore, and language are all expressed beautifully here, just like in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and the epic geographic scale is reminiscent of Game of Thrones.

The characters that we follow are queer and colourful, brooding and salacious, twisted and calculating. There is vibrancy and pomp and splendour in abundance here.

Easily one of the great queer fantasy novels of all time.

Buy a copy here!

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Wolfsong, the first in TJ Klune’s Green Creek series of fantasy books, is a novel that answers the question, “What if Twilight was gay and also good?”

Klune is known for blending queer romance with urban fantasy, and this is his most expansive queer romantic fantasy story yet, spanning four lengthy books.

Wolfsong is the first book in that series, and it is predominantly a gay romance between a boy named Ox, who grew up in a nowhere Oregon town for which the series is named, and the youngest son of a pack of werewolves.

Around the time Ox turns sixteen, the Bennett family (whose matriarch is genuinely called Elizabeth Bennett), move in next door.

Ox soon learns that the Bennetts are not only shapeshifters, but that his friend and boss, Gordo, already knows them. and that Gordo (protagonist of the series’ second book) is also a witch.

Ox and Joe, the youngest of three boys, become tethered together in an intense friendship that soon blossoms into a vicious, feral kind of romance.

Wolfsong is a queer fantasy novel full of bloodshed, revenge, cruelty, and savage love.

Buy a copy of Wolfsong here!

Read More: 16 Must-Read Cozy Fantasy & Found Family Books

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

The Unbroken is an epic modern fantasy novel set in a world of empire and rebellion.

The Empire of Balladaire has conquered the land of Qazāl, and our protagonist, Touraine, was one of many children taken by the empire’s army to be raised as a soldier.

Twenty years on and Touraine is a lieutenant who has been sent back to Qazāl, along with other conscripts and the empire’s princess Luca, to quell a rising rebellion against the empire.

Getting closer to the rebels means learning that her mother is still alive, and so Touraine’s loyalties will inevitably be tested.

When she is invited into the princesses inner circle, a romance between the two — a lesbian soldier and a bisexual princess — has a chance to blossom.

But the relationship between these two queer protagonists is far more fraught and enticing than a simple romance. After all, this is a fantasy book about colonisers and rebels.

This is a queer fantasy novel that brilliantly explores themes of colonialism and rebellion with style and savvy, and with two queer women as its protagonists.

Buy a copy of The Unbroken here!

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

A sapphic fantasy novel set in a world inspired by South American history, folklore, and landscapes. The Sun and the Void is an epic novel that tackles colonialism and deep-seated prejudices.

Our protagonist, Reina, is a girl with a tail, a mixed-race daughter of a revolutionary who received a letter from her grandmother, which sets her out on a journey across mountains.

Gravely injured along the way, Reina is nursed back to health by her witch grandmother. From there, she lives and works at the house of a great lord and begins to fall for his daughter.

This is a world of myriad gods, traditions, races, and alliances. Reina is lured into dark magic while fearing the cruel prejudices of those around her.

An epic queer fantasy novel about sapphic love, and a confident sign that the future of fantasy is bright and diverse.

Buy a copy of The Sun and the Void here!

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Phoenix Extravagant is a thinly-veiled fantasy allegory for the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula in the early 20th century. In this standalone novel, the people of Hwaguk have been invaded by the Razanei Empire, who have access to robotic automatons thanks to the trade of technology with the people of the Far West. Our protagonist, Jebi, is a nonbinary painter who has tried and failed to stay out of politics and keep their head down.

However, when the fail an art exam—and thus are unable to find work as a result—they are all but kidnapped to work on Razanei automatons. Specifically, their ultimate weapon: an enormous robotic dragon. These automatons are brought to life by a magical paint with mysterious pigments. The dragon is malfunctioning, and Jebi is ordered to find out why and fix the dragon so that it can be used as a deadly weapon of war.

In doing so, Jebi learns to speak with the dragon, and their conversations will uncover the truth as to why it is faulty and has caused the Razanei Empire so many problems. The truth is not what Jebi expects, and they are no longer able to pretend indifference and good behaviour in the face of foreign occupation.

Buy a copy here!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The story of Achilles and Patroclus is one of the great tragic tales of love and warfare in the Western canon, but it’s also one that has been whitewashed by Christian conservatism over centuries.

The legendary warrior Achilles and his brother-in-arms Patroclus were a gay couple, but their romance has been “purified” in a fearful and pathetic way.

That is until Madeline Miller came along and rewrote their story, reinjecting the queerness back into their story and writing something truly beautiful in the process.

While not strictly fantasy, The Song of Achilles features on this list of queer fantasy novels because mythology has inspired fantasy; we wouldn’t have one without the other.

In that sense, this iconic and gay tale of Greek mythology deserves a spot on this list of colourful queer fantasy books.

Buy a copy here!

Queer Sci-fi Books

If there’s one genre that has always, since its inception, pushed at the edges of ordinary life, looking upwards and outwards and into exciting new worlds and spaces, it’s science fiction.

Much like with gothic fiction, sci-fi and queerness have a long history, even when the authors themselves haven’t been explicitly queer.

But now, LGBTQ authors are taking sci-fi literature in wild and wonderful new directions, to new frontiers where no one has gone before (enjoy that).

Queer sci-fi books are vital for the genre to continue shifting and changing and evolving, and these stories really are something special.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers is considered by an increasing number of sci-fi readers to be the modern queen of science fiction, and the evidence for why is clear.

Chambers comes at the genre of sci-fi with wide-eyed wonder, positivity, hope, and an expansive imagination.

In her Monk and Robot series, beginning with A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Chambers introduces us to a young non-binary monk who leaves their city to explore the wilderness.

They are a tea monk, someone who brings tea to people and listens to their problems. They live on a moon that once created AI and eventually freed its robot slaves.

Those robots vanished to live out in the wilderness and were never seen again, until our monk meets one on their journey, and the two spend the novel discussing big philosophical and existential questions.

This is a calm, quiet, reflective little novel about the nature of being. It’s a warming comfort and proof of Chambers’ hopeful and healthy outlook on the nature of life, human or otherwise.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is one of the most beautiful, comforting, welcome queer sci-fi novels ever written.

Buy a copy here!

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

American author Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars is a blending of genres that mixes queer science fiction with urban fantasy.

Here, we have three protagonists: a transgender violin prodigy, a space alien who sells donuts at a California diner, and a woman who made a faustian deal with the devil.

This is a wonderful queer sci-fi novel that emphasises migration and found family. Our three protagonists are all running from something: an abusive home, hell itself, or a galactic empire.

It’s an experimental novel about love and music and kindness and growth. It reminds us to love one another and, maybe even more importantly, to love ourselves.

Ryka Aoki celebrates music with this novel, emphasising its power, its healing properties, its ability to bring us together and bring out the best in us.

It’s also a sci-fi novel with a focus on everyone who isn’t a white man. Set in California, its protagonists are all from other places: Japan, Vietnam, outer space.

In this way, it is a perfect American novel; one that reminds us of who and what created the US as it exists today.

Buy a copy here

Read More: The Best Sci-Fi Books Ever Written

Gideon the Ninth by Tasyn Muir

To be clear, Gideon the Ninth and its sequels have been labelled science-fantasy. In terms of their structure and tropes, they are queer fantasy novels. But in their setting, they are sci-fi. This is reminiscent of works like Dune and Star Wars, sci-fi stories with deep and intrinsically fantastical elements.

Gideon the Ninth is also an unbridled celebration of queerness. In part, this is thanks to its explicitly lesbian characters and storylines, but also in its setting and aesthetics. Queerness has forever been tied to the gothic, to alternative fashion, to vampires and blood and dark things. This novel really leans into that gothic edge to the nth degree.

Gideon the Ninth begins with the titular Gideon, an angry young swordswoman who was born into a life of servitude. She serves Harrowhark, princess of their planet. They despise each other, but they have been invited by the leader of their planetary system to take part in a contest.

This contest may, if they succeed, lead to immortality and immense power. This is a novel that is at times laugh-out-loud funny; one that doesn’t always take itself too seriously; one that revels in the absurd, the queer, and the camp. It’s an incredibly fun and frantic queer sci-fi novel that cannot be recommended highly enough.

Buy a copy here!

The Seep by Chana Porter

Chana Porter’s short novel, The Seep, is a unique kind of queer sci-fi that pushes the genre in new directions while also harkening back to the golden age of the genre.

In spite of how modern and boundary-pushing this queer sci-fi novel is, it also has strong John Wyndham vibes, which is fun.

The titular Seep is an alien lifeform which invades Earth in a very quiet way. It literally seeps into our water supply, into our minds, and our lives. It causes capitalism to fall and life to become far more hedonistic for all.

Under the thrall of the Seep, all is possible. People live longer, pursue their dreams, change their physiology, and live free.

Our protagonist is a fifty-year-old trans woman who, after many years of living with the Seep, creating art, and retraining as a doctor, is suddenly floored when her wife says she wants to use the Seep to be reborn afresh, as a baby with no memory of her life.

The Seep is a novel about what a world of infinite possibilities might look like, when we still retain our need for companionship and love and kindness.

It’s a book of uncomfortable juxtapositions and a real twist on the alien invasion concept.

Buy a copy here!

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Every page of this queer sci-fi graphic novel is more breathtaking in the last, notably the full-art pages which are fully deserving of being framed.

The use of red and blue throughout On a Sunbeam is a feast for the eyes and forces you to linger and reread for full impact.

Our main protagonist, Mia, is part of a diverse crew of queer characters that rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures throughout space, piecing the past together.

As Mia gets to know her team, who are each well fleshed out with their own stories that become relevant later, we flashback to Mia’s time in a boarding school where she fell in love with a mysterious new student.

Mia finally reveals that she’s joined their ship to track down her lost love. This is a queer and colourful sci-fi epic that’s not to be missed, especially for fans of comics and graphic novels.

Buy a copy here!

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

An abstract and beautifully lyrical sapphic love story unfolding through unique letters sent across time and space.

Two rival agents named Red and Blue come from opposite sides of warring factions of a time war and fall in love through the course of this novella.

This is How You Lose the Time War is highly poetic and may not be for you if you prefer a structured plot and world-building, but this unstructured approach lends itself well to emphasising the fractured yearning and tenderness between these two agents.

The co-writing of This is How You Lose the Time War also means that the two agents have very distinct voices and personalities which makes their love all the more endearing.

A truly unique narrative amongst queer sci-fi novels, and one not to be missed!

Buy a copy here!

The Best Queer Horror Books

The authors covered here are all imaginative, daring writers who are bringing the queer experience to the world of horror, and with that come unique terrors and monsters.

Fear is different for everyone, and the voices of gay and trans writers and characters bring forth new fears and ways of exploring them. And so, here are the best queer horror books out there right now, written by authors who are breathing new life into the horror genre.

Read More: Essential Horror Novels (Not by Stephen King)

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Written by British transgender author Alison Rumfitt, Tell Me I’m Worthless is a Shirley Jackson-esque haunted house novel fuelled by political and social rage.

This queer horror novel follows a pair of opposing protagonists who were once friends: a young, vulnerable trans woman who is being haunted, and a jaded, twisted transphobe. During their time at university, these two women spent a night at an abandoned and haunted house called Albion, and left the house very different and damaged people.

Tell Me I’m Worthless tracks the present-day lives of these women and gently unravels the history of the house Ablion, as well as what exactly happened on that fateful night. Full of anguish and terror, Tell Me I’m Worthless is one of the most haunting and raw queer horror books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Tell Me I’m Worthless here!

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Patricia Wants to Cuddle has one of the best horror novel titles of all time. The blurb explains that our protagonist, Renee, is one of four finalists on a Bachelor-esque reality show called The Catch, and the catch in question is a tech bro named Jeremy. So, who is Patricia? The question sends shivers down the spine! As it turns out, the season finale of The Catch is being filmed on an island where people have been known to go missing.

This is Otters Island, off the coast of Washington State. Hosting the show’s finalists and its crew is a widowed lesbian who knows more about the island than she’s willing to share. And during their first few hours on the island, members of the crew are sure they keep catching glimpses of an ape, or perhaps an enormous naked man, wandering the tree line and on the winding roads at night.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle isn’t just a queer horror-comedy; it is a daring novel that demands from the world a queer paradise where cishet people either die or stay far away.

Buy a copy of Patricia Wants to Cuddle here!

Queen of Teeth by Hailey Piper

American transgender author Hailey Piper has penned an incredible number of horror stories in her time, and her first horror novel was Queen of Teeth. This is a gnarly book about bodily autonomy, the American healthcare system, and self-control.

The morning after a one-night stand, protagonist Yaya wakes up with the sheets soaked in blood, and assumes her period has come early and unexpectedly. In actual fact, a full set of human teeth has grown at the entrance to her vagina, and the corporation AlphaBeta Pharmaceutical is to blame.

As she continues to transform in monstrous, terrifying ways, and the mouth in her nethers takes on a mind of its own, Yaya must fight against and run from the people who did this to her. With a lesbian protagonist, a trans author at the helm, and a story about changing bodies, as well as corporate and governmental control over our lives, this is one of the most deeply queer horror books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Queen of Teeth here!

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Unapologetically angry, bloody, and harrowing, Manhunt is not for the faint of heart. Written by an American trans author, this is a disgusting and punk horror novel.

Manhunt is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a virus that specifically targets testosterone, and cisgender men have been reduced to ravaging, cannibalistic zombies. These man-zombies aren’t the only threat that our protagonists — a pair of trans women journeying along the USA’s east coast — face, however.

Amongst the survivors of this plague, most of whom are cisgender women, there are those who wish to hunt and kill the trans people who have managed to also survive the plague.

Manhunt is as viscerally bloody as a horror novel can possibly be, and is also very blunt in its aggression towards toxic masculinity and transphobic women. Both a clever twist on the post-apocalypse formula and a reaction to modern-day bigotry towards the trans community, Manhunt is one of the most daring queer horror books ever written.

Buy a copy of Manhunt here!

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Our Wives Under the Sea is the debut novel by British author Julia Armfield; a gothic novel about a married lesbian couple whose lives are tragically upended.

Leah spent six months at the bottom of the ocean on a research trip which should have lasted only a few weeks. Her time trapped in a submarine has changed both her mind and her body. Her wife, Miri, is relieved to have her wife back but quickly comes to realise that there is actually very little left of her wife at all.

We follow both of these narratives as the novel progresses, learning what eldritch horrors Leah encountered in the depths and watching on as Miri figures out what she should do next. Claustrophobia is, appropriately, everywhere in this gothic horror novel, as both women are trapped in one way or another: in their homes, in their minds, and in their memories.

Our Wives Under the Sea is a powerful gothic story of grief and loss, and one of the most harrowing queer horror books you will ever read.

Buy a copy of Our Wives Under the Sea here!

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Written by UK-based non-binary American author Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland is a politically-charged piece of American gothic fiction.

This is a novel about the history of the USA’s relationship to Black people, specifically Black bodies. Our protagonist, Vern, is an albino Black teenager who has escaped an isolated cult commune. She gives birth to twins alone in the forest and then continues to run.

The story of a Black commune that rejects modernity and Americanisms eventually leads to bleak and harrowing revelations about White America’s treatment of the Black community. Written by a non-binary author, this is a novel featuring lesbian love, cult behaviour, possession, and so much more.

A truly startling and poetic piece of frightening American gothic literature, and one of the most politically powerful queer horror books on the shelves.

Buy a copy of Sorrowland here!

The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Written by queer, trans American author Andrew Joseph White, The Spirit Bares its Teeth is an enthralling and unsettling blend of historical fiction, horror, and urban fantasy. This is a YA novel filled with piss and vinegar. It lashes out against the history of cruelty dealt by white western patriarchy onto those considered to be “other”, cruelty that was often disguised as something just, necessary, and even scientific.

Our protagonist is a young man named Silas. Silas knows he’s a man, but society and his family have raised him as a girl. Born with the purple eyes that indicate to the citizens of Victorian England that he is in touch with the spirits of the dead beyond the Veil, Silas is raised to become the wife of a noble who will sire more spirit mediums.

After disguising himself as a boy at a gala, in order to obtain a seal that says he is a certified medium, Silas is caught and sent to a sanatorium for sick girls, overseen by an abusive headmaster and his subservient wife. There, Silas finds himself in contact with the spirits of the place and will uncover the true darkness of it.

Buy a copy of The Spirit Bares its Teeth here!

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Chuck Tingle’s follow-up to the savvy, moving, and wildly successful Camp Damascus takes us to the messy and unethical world of modern Hollywood, and it’s a novel which once again showcases Tingle’s unique vision of humanity: as something bleak, corrupt, cynical, but ultimately redeemable. Misha is a closeted screenwriter of queer-coded horror movies and TV shows, and he will soon play victim to his own creations.

When the novel begins, Misha’s boss breaks the news to him that the two female protagonists of his hit TV show Travelers can either have their queerness abandoned by the narrative or they can declare their love and die in a blaze of glory. Misha calls this what it is: burying the gays, and he is sick of it. He fights back. And as soon as he does, the various monsters and villains from his stories appear in his life to threaten and attack him and his loved ones.

Bury Your Gays works as a wonderful critique on the ethics of intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and turning lives and cultures into storytelling tropes. It’s also a novel about authenticity and truth, both in fiction and in real life. Funny, heartwarming, and also often terrifying.

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Felker-Martin’s follow-up to her debut horror novel Manhunt surpasses that novel in a number of ways, while also having a mouth full of just as many—and just as sharp—teeth. Cuckoo is separated into two parts, with Part 1 being set in 1995 and following a group of queer teens who have been abducted and taken to a conversion camp in the heart of the Utah desert. In Part 2, we learn what happened to these kids when they grew up.

Cuckoo reads like the monster child of Stephen King’s IT and the 1970s movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which is referenced more than once in the novel. In this desert lives a strange and dangerous thing that can wear the skin of those it preys upon, and it is hungry for these kids. They must band together to survive this monstrous predator, all while being tortured and “reeducated” by the just-as-monstrous people who run the camp.

Like Manhunt before it, Cuckoo is a visceral, raw, and nasty work of horror, drenched in copious amounts of blood (and plenty of other bodily fluids besides), but unlike Manhunt it’s a horror novel with a focus on love and companionship—our protagonists continue to love themselves and trust one another in spite of everything.

Managing and Other Lies by Willow Heath

Managing and Other Lies is a collection of six unsettling LGBTQ horror stories which opens with the titular Managing: a gothic novella about a nameless protagonist keeping a journal as they work at their new job cleaning a large and labyrinthine house at the edge of an English village. As they work, they reminisce about lost love and explore the corners of the house. Before long, they learn that they are not alone.

The house is occupied—though nobody told them it would be—by a woman who offers our protagonists gifts and the temptation of a better life, all in exchange for a few bits and piece of who they are. Another story follows a YouTuber dealing with an obsessive fan; one is written as a play script about a young trans woman coming out to her cruel mother; and another is a work of body horror about a baby born wrong.

These are twisted, uncomfortable tales echoing the styles and themes of Franz Kafka and Shirley Jackson. They creep under your skin and there they remain, making you feel itchy and nauseated. They’re not all easy reads, but they are all worth it.

Buy a copy here!

Parallel Hells by Leon Craig

This is a collection of horror stories that spans multiple styles and genres, inspired by mythology, folk horror, and modern popular culture. While not all of the stories in here are explicitly queer (such as the shortest tale, which recounts the experiences and feelings of a bunch of wooden antiques), many of them are.

One stand-out story is that of a viking man and his forbidden love with a pacifist friend, told from the perspective of the viking’s jealous and murderous wife.

Another is the sinister story of a succubus who works amongst a diverse queer cast in a world of sex and kink. Then there’s the endless party which takes place in a house that offers people their deepest desires, and one man’s true desire is to transition.

There is a wonderful breadth of diversity in the queer representation and narrative stylings of Parallel Hells, one of the most unique queer horror books out there.

Buy a copy of Parallel Hells here!

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Written by American horror author T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead is a daring and masterful retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

This short novel tracks its protagonist as they visit the home of a pair of old friends after receiving a letter from them, but this house is hardly a home any longer. Taking the bones of Poe’s original story and building upon it in savvy and imaginative ways, What Moves the Dead is a twisted and terrifying short horror novel.

What makes it refreshingly queer is its protagonist’s non-binary identity, hailing as they do from a place in which soldiers give up their gender when choosing to serve their land. The non-binary twist in the tale, as well as the protagonist’s dedication to their country, adds significant personal depth to the character that helps to elevate this classic gothic horror story to new heights.

Buy a copy of What Moves the Dead here!

Read More: The Best Horror Novels Ever Written

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The novel which inspired M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, Paul Tremblay’s American horror masterpiece is an exercise in tension and terror.

Taking place entirely on the grounds of a New Hampshire cabin, The Cabin at the End of the World follows a gay couple and their adopted daughter as their time together at the cabin is disturbed. An enormous man approaches the cabin and insists that he and his three friends must be let inside. They wield makeshift weapons which they insist won’t be used on the family.

After managing to force their way inside, these four invaders explain that they need the family’s help with stopping the end of the world. What follows is a story all about faith, cult behaviour, and trust, as the reader spends the entirety of the novel wondering what, if anything, is real.

Bloody at times, with shocking and eye-opening twists and turns, The Cabin at the end of the World is one of the most taut tales of suspense you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of The Cabin at the End of the World here!

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Part of the three-story collection of the same name, Eric LaRocca’s story Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is an epistolary tale about emotional control. Set around the year 2000, this story is written as a series of emails and instant messages between two women, one of whom is struggling to pay her rent and is selling off precious heirlooms.

The other woman makes her an offer: she’ll pay her rent for her, but only if they enter into a dominant/submissive relationship in which one does whatever the other says. Despite the fact that these women never meet in person, and all of this is read through email correspondence, the terror is visceral and incredibly unsettling.

The places this queer horror story goes are as unexpected as they are frightening. A brilliantly imaginative exercise in fear.

Buy a copy of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke here!

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca

Following on from the huge success of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes this disgusting and depraved collection of short queer horror stories from Eric LaRoccca. These stories often focus on gay men and women and have a tense and uncomfortable focus on body horror.

For example, one story is a diary from the perspective of a woman whose wife has been diagnosed with cancer. However, her wife is also obsessed with experimental performance art that includes body mutilation and self-mummification.

Or a story about a gay couple who get chatting to an older straight couple at the park before realising their child has vanished, and was in fact stolen. To win their child back, they must play a cruel and insidious game of truth-telling that will tear their relationship apart. These are daring and deeply discomfiting queer tales of horror and terror, not for the feint of heart.

Buy a copy here!

This Skin Was Once Mine by Eric LaRocca

Eric LaRocca is the king of the horror short story, and of the horror title. This collection is no exception in both regards. Four twisted tales, prominently featuring queer protagonists, each deliver a nauseating gut-punch of horror. The title story—and longest in the collection—tells the tale of a woman whose mother sent her off to a boarding school when she was nine. She hasn’t been home since, but the death of her once-beloved father has lured her back.

When she arrives home, she is shocked to find the state that her mother has been living in for so long, and we are also privy to flashbacks which reveal the truth about her relationship to her father. In Seedling, a young man’s father calls him to tell him that his mother has passed. When he goes home to help his father sort through everything, they both notice that they share identical wounds that reveal only blackness beneath their skin.

In All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn, a man is asked by his husband to buy a special knife for a dinner party. The salesman at the store offers him the knife in exchange for a sadistic act: cutting his skin and slipping a piece of glass inside the wound. This leads him down a dark path of obsession. And in Prickle, two elderly friends reunite and decide to play a dark game they once enjoyed. The game goes to darker places than you can imagine.

It Came From The Closet, Edited by Joe Vallese

This is a non-fiction book; a collection of essays by various queer writers who are tackling the world of horror cinema. Each essay focuses on a film, or a theme which several films share, and examines that film of theme through a queer lens.

Many of these stories are personal and full of anecdotes; others are more analytical and academic in their approach to queer interpretation. If you’re a fan of horror cinema, this essay collection will reframe many of the classics in a fun, engaging, and thought-provoking way.

Buy a copy of It Came from the Closet here!

If you were read to as a little one, it’s pretty likely that your fondest reading memories are of bedtime. The best bedtime stories to read are ones that are like paths to good dreams.

From magical bedtime stories, we get sparks of imagination and beautiful, peaceful dreams.

Bedtime stories are also a wonderful opportunity to teach our children about the variety that human experience has to offer us.

LGBTQ+ Bedtime Stories to Read to Your Little Ones

LGBTQ experiences are the epitome of variety; they exist outside of the normal ways that many of us were taught to live, and they’re all the more beautiful for that.

These LGBTQ bedtimes stories to read right now are all glowing examples of the varied queer experiences so many of us go through.

They’re also inspiring, imaginative tales and stories with valuable lessons to teach your children.

My Shadow is Purple by Scott Stuart

My Shadow is Purple is a beautiful story about the beauty of diversity; about the wonders that lie outside of the needlessly restrictive gender binary.

Our young protagonist has a father with a blue shadow and a mother with a pink shadow, and yet our protagonist’s shadow is purple.

At school, so many boys have blue shadows and girls have pink ones, but not all of them.

One size never fits all, and this illustrated bedtime story celebrates those who don’t, can’t, and should never have to fit into one of two constricting boxes.

For transgender and non-binary readers, this is an uplifting tale that inspires empathy and wonder in young readers.

If you want to really teach your child about the magic of variety, about all the colours that are out there, this is one of the essential LGBTQ bedtime stories to read right now.

Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

Julian is a young boy who, one day, becomes mystified by three women he sees all dressed up like mermaids.

Inspired and mesmerised by their beauty, Julian longs to dress up in beautiful colours and feminine style.

This is a very minimalist bedtime story; its gorgeous imagery carries the story and allows Julian’s heart  to speak louder than words ever could.

This also allows you to add your own flair to the story as you read it, if you like.

Julian is a Mermaid reminds us that there is no right or wrong way to express yourself, or to live your life (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else).

There are no labels in this book, either; what we have is simply a young boy inspired by feminine beauty who wants to express himself in that way.

This is a truly wonderful and inspiring LGBTQ bedtime story to read right now with your own little ones.

Me and My Dysphoria Monster by Laura Kate Dale and Hui Qing Ang

We at Books and Bao are huge fans of Laura Kate Dale, as a video games critic, a memoirist, a podcaster, and as a transgender trailblazer.

Here, she has teamed up with the incredibly talented illustrator Hui Qing Ang to bring us her first ever children’s book: an uplifting tale about overcoming gender dysphoria.

In a world where we are increasingly aware of, and knowledgeable about, gender dysphoria in trans children, a book like this helps to put complex feelings into simple words.

It does this through an easy-to-comprehend metaphor that every child can follow, whether they suffer with dysphoria or not.

In fact, if they don’t, Me and My Dysphoria Monster is a wonderful lesson in empathy for children who are growing up in an increasingly diverse social landscape.

Gender dysphoria is a very important topic for parents to be aware of, and for that reason, Dale’s book is one of the most important LGBTQ bedtime stories to read, whether you are a child or a parent.

Read More: 18 Best Bookish Podcasts to Listen to Now

Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival

Norman has grown a pair of wings, and he loves them. But he is afraid of what his parents will say; afraid of judgement or rejection or punishment; afraid he is somehow wrong.

Perfectly Norman is a fascinating story. As a transgender person who kept their true identity secret from her parents for fear of rejection, I related to this book in a big way.

However, Perfectly Norman can also be interpreted as a celebration of our individuality, queer or not.

Norman’s wings can easily be a metaphor for gender or sexual orientation. It can also be a metaphor for a curious new hobby or interest; something that sets a child apart from the usual.

This makes Perfectly Norman a broadly relatable story about how fear and shame can cause us to hide who we really are, even though who we are is never a bad thing.

For queer readers, this story will hit extra hard, but we can all relate to Norman’s experiences in one way or another.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole

And Tango Makes Three is a touching tale about a gay couple who want a child of their own.

Roy and Silo are two penguins who live in a zoo enclosure, and they have fallen in love. But, as two male penguins, they can’t have a child of their own.

With the zookeeper’s help, their wish might be able to come true.

Given how increasingly normal it is for children around the world to be raised by same-sex couples, it’s important to teach this to children at a young age.

This way, it becomes normalised and they don’t grow up thinking it’s peculiar or out-of-the-ordinary in any way.

And Tango Makes Three, a beautifully illustrated tale about a happy penguin family, is the perfect way to teach such a lesson.

For that reason, this is one of the best LGBTQ bedtime stories to read to your children.

The Pirate Mums by Jodie Lancet-Grant and Lydia Corry

The Pirate Mums isn’t just a story about same-sex parents raising a child. It’s also about aesthetics and hobbies and fashion and expression that’s all outside the norm.

It’s about how there are different ways to live your life, to express yourself, to spend your time, and to raise a child.

This LGBTQ children’s book celebrates adventure and strangeness, expression and queerness.

It’s another wonderful bedtime story that helps to normalise having two mums, but it’s also one full of colour and humour that inspired adventure and wonder.

This is how you write a happy, exciting, wholesome, and celebratory tale of queer families for children to enjoy. One of the most wonderful LGBTQ bedtime stories to read now.

The Prince and the Frog by Olly Pike

Everyone knows the tale of the princess and the frog: a beautiful princess kisses an ugly frog and he transforms back into a handsome prince.

The Prince and the Frog, as its title suggests, flips the script on this story by making it wonderfully gay.

It does more than that, though. By keeping the princess in the story as the extroverted sister to the more introverted prince, it adds a layer of sibling love to the tale.

Now, this is a queer children’s story, as well as one about sibling love and the differences between them.

This is about diversity in more ways than one: in our sexual orientations, in our experiences, our expressions, how we love, and how we play.

One of the most simple, charming, and effective LGBTQ bedtime stories to read to your children.

Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall

This is one of the smartest yet most relatable children’s stories you’ll ever read, and another tale that can be read in different fun ways.

Most obviously, this is a tale of gender identity. A blue crayon has been mistakenly labelled as red. Inside, he is blue but all outward signs point to him being red.

Everyone around him encourages him to be what he seems to be, without seeing what he really is inside.

But this is also a tale that can easily be related to by cisgender readers as well; by neurodiverse people who behave differently, for example.

Or simply by people who have different hobbies. Little boys who don’t want to play football, despite being encouraged to.

The clever ways in which the life and actions of crayons are laced into this story makes it a very funny and charming tale, but it’s also a desperately important one about being true to oneself.

For genderqueer readers, for children with dysphoria, for kids who just feel a little different, Red: A Crayon’s Story is one of the most vital LGBTQ bedtime stories to read right now.

10,000 Dresses by Ewert and Marcus

This is the story of a young trans girl who dreams, every night, of wearing a beautiful dress.

But every morning she wakes up and is seen as and called a girl.

This is also the story of her coming to be understood and helped to realise her true self in her waking hours.

A beautiful trans tale for young readers to enjoy and absorb. 10,000 Dresses is a story for trans kids to empathise with and cis kids to learn from and sympathise with.

Of all the great LGBTQ bedtime stories out there, this is one that hits hard and has a very specific, very poignant lesson to teach about what we are versus what we seem to be.

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman and Kristyna Litten

This Day in June is a colourful and vibrant celebration of the equally colourful and vibrant queer community around the world.

As its title suggests, this is a book about Pride; about the month of June, in which millions of queer people and our allies dance and sing and dress up and celebrate ourselves and each other.

This particular book also comes with a reading guide that will teach and contextualise plenty of queer history and culture for children and parents alike.

As educational as it is uplifting and celebratory, This Day in June is a beautiful book about love and life and community. An essential book amongst LGBTQ bedtime stories to read to your children.

A Tale of Two Mommies by Vanita Oelschlager and Mike Blanc

Another sweet, heartwarming, and educational queer story about life as a child with two same-sex parents.

This is a simple book that answers simple questions about gender roles within a relationship, especially as parents raising a child.

A Tale of Two Mommies challenges gender roles and expectations, and the toxic heteronormaitve society we were told is normal and proper and ideal.

Uplifting and valuable, this is another essential book on this ever-growing list of wonderful LGBTQ bedtime stories to read to your little ones.

However, just like with straight romance manga and BL manga, you need to separate the wheat from the chaff in order to find the most warming, most wholesome, most tear-jerking, most sexy, and best yuri manga on the shelves right now. And that’s just what you’ll find here, on this list of essential yuri manga, both classic and modern. But, before we begin…

What is yuri manga?

Put simply, yuri manga is a genre of romance manga that focuses on lesbian relationships. It’s lesbian manga. Occasionally, it’s lewd, sexy, and erotic (and that’s often what comes to mind for some readers), but certainly not always.

Much of the yuri manga genre is comprised of wholesome lesbian romance. A lot of yuri manga centres around younger protagonists — high school or university students — but there are also adult yuri manga as well. The name ‘yuri manga’ comes from the Japanese word for lily: yuri (百合). Lilies are associated with femininity and romance, so it makes sense to tie that symbolism to lesbian romance manga and anime.

Yuri manga can also be considered a sub-genre of the wider shoujo manga genre, which is manga targeted towards a younger female readership and often encompasses romance and slice-of-life manga. This is why yuri manga is also often called shoujo-ai (literally “girls’ love”).

Must-Read Sapphic Yuri Manga

With the definition of yuri manga out of the way, here are some absolutely essential yuri manga for you to check out right now.

Still Sick by Akashi

While so many (undeniably great) yuri manga take place in high school, Still Sick stands out by being set in an office environment, and centring around a pair of adult women: Shimizu (29) and Maekawa (25). Shimizu has been working her office job for several years, but secretly enjoys writing and drawing yuri fanfiction manga about her favourite anime. She also takes her fanzines to conventions to sell them.

At one of these conventions, she suddenly bumps into her co-worker, Maekawa, who claims she wandered into the wrong event hall while searching for a different convention in the same building. After Maekawa learns Shimizu’s secret, the tables soon turn and Shimizu learns that Maekawa was once an up-and-coming mangaka who gave up after becoming discouraged by her work and the words of her father.

While the two bond over their shared love of making manga, the strengthening of this bond doesn’t come easy, as Shimizu is eager to encourage Maekawa back into the world of manga creation, but her friend is resistant.

As their professional relationship shifts and their friendship blossoms, so too does the potential for romance. While Shimizu has always loved yuri manga, she has never admitted to her own lesbian identity. Until now. It doesn’t take long for her to realise her romantic feelings for Maekawa, but what will that mean for their friendship and their professional relationship?

This is a mature and grounded yuri manga from a talented creator; one that sets itself apart by presenting readers with a more gradual and uneven narrative that is true to life, while still being wonderfully uplifting.

Buy a copy of Still Sick here!

Failed Princesses by Ajiichi

Failed Princesses is a rewarding slow-burn yuri manga that begins, not with the sparks of love, but with the sparks of friendship. Popular girl Fujishiro Nanaki makes no secret about her love of attention and her desire to be seen as the cutest, prettiest girl in the room.

Her classmate, otaku wallflower Kurokawa Kanade, is entirely the opposite. A bookworm and lover of BL manga, Kanade enjoys her unassuming life and the friends with which she can share her interests.

However, these two girls, who normally exist worlds apart, are thrust together when Nanaki’s boyfriend of three months reveals that she was only ever his bit on the side when he is caught cheating. Their at-school breakup wasn’t as secret as they thought — Kanada overheard the whole thing and moves to comfort Nanaki.

And so an unlikely friendship is born, one in which the popular girl sees the cute, endearing side of the wallflower and is eager to get closer to her, while the wallflower digs her heels in but moves closer all the same. As they spend more and more time together and affect one another’s lives, will this budding friendship eventually shift into a budding romance?

The expressive art and narrative flow by Ajiichi, and the funny, charming translation work of Angela Liu, make this a wonderfully rewarding yuri manga to check out.

Buy a copy of Failed Princesses here!

Our Teachers are Dating! by Pikachi Ohi

Our Teachers are Dating! is an unapologetically sickly-sweet yuri manga; a consistent stream of dopamine that consists of tender moments, awkward but endearing comedy, and a few very sexy scenes.

This is a lesbian manga that wastes no time getting the ball rolling. Our protagonists, colleagues at an all-girls school, have already started dating the moment the manga begins. Hayama is the school’s gym teacher, and Terano is a biology teacher. Their colleagues have been rooting for them since they met, and it has finally happened. Now we just sit and watch as their romance blossoms.

From their first kiss to their first time in bed together, we read on as these two awkward but sincere lovers fall deeper and deeper into something very special.

This is very much a fantasy romance. A manga that seems to exist in a world void of men, where homophobia simply doesn’t exist and everyone is always rooting for love. No drama, no obstacles, no maybes — just love and sex and joy. Our Teachers are Dating! offers readers a yuri manga that is pure escapism and a satisfying amount of spice.

It’s not reflective of life, but that’s okay. It’s a fantasy that we all get to enjoy; one full of confessions and firsts, supported by some gorgeous artwork that’s full of dynamic angles and imaginative panel layouts. If you want your yuri manga to be escapist joy, sweetness and charm, this is the one for you.

Buy a copy of Our Teachers are Dating here!

Citrus by Saburouta

If you have done any previous research into, or have already dipped your toe into yuri manga, then you’ll already be familiar with Citrus. This is easily one of the most popular lesbian manga of all time.

The popularity of the Citrus manga might come as a surprise, considering how its premise is, at first, very reminiscent of more smutty manga and harem manga. Citrus begins with Yuzu, a fashion-obsessed and happy-go-lucky high school girl who transfers to a strict girls’ school after her mother remarries.

At this school, Yuzu quickly makes enemies, the most important of which being Mei, the school’s student body president. Mei is cold, distant, and intimidating. But she also turns out to be Yuzu’s new stepsister. The idea of a budding, troubled, and smoky romance between step-sisters might immediately raise red flags with some readers, but put your trust in Saburouta.

It’s that very implausible plot, the sheer melodrama at play, and the larger-than-life personalities of its opposing yet love-struck characters that make Citrus such an essential yuri manga. The journey from enemies to family to lovers is one you’ll want to see.

The art also pops, with excellent use of shades of grey and big, expressive faces that are very reminiscent of nineties shoujo manga.

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi

This is one of the most important yuri manga of all time. Although, simply calling it a yuri manga is doing it a disservice. My Lesbian Experiene with Loneliness is a lot more than that. This is, in fact, a piece of autofiction. This manga, and its follow-ups, My Solo Exchange Diary and My Alcoholic Escape from Reality are all autobiographical manga from one of the most important mangaka in the craft.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is a graphic memoir composed with raw and honest pain. It opens your eyes to an important yet painful reality in Japan, all through the use of dark humour, minimalist art, and queer honesty. This is the story of Kabi, a woman who decided against attending university, and spent her early twenties in a haze of depression, drifting through jobs at stores and bakeries and, when she finds the energy to do so, she writes manga.

Eventually, as we see in the flash-forward opening pages, she arrives, age twenty-eight, at a turning point. She decides to hire a female escort and a room at a love hotel, in order to learn and understand all that she believes she has missed out on in her youth.

Nagata’s art is wonderfully minimalistic. Rarely is a single background to be seen. Instead, simple line work with gleefully rough and amateurish shading pervades. This forces the reader’s eye to admire the way in which Nagata has managed to depict her own inner feelings outwardly expressed.

Like so much literature on mental health, this yuri manga hugely succeeds at making us feel far less alone in our strangeness. Because we’re not strange, we’re just people.

Bloom Into You by Nio Nakatani

If you’re looking for an easy, sweet, cute, and wholesome intro to the world of yuri manga, Bloom Into You is it, often feeling like a greatest hits of lesbian romance themes, tropes, and characters. Bloom Into You is one of the most popular yuri manga of today, and with good reason. This popularity was also supported by studio Troyca’s lovely anime adaptation of this manga in 2018.

Bloom Into You tells the story of Yuu Koito, a high school girl with an adoration for the stories found in shoujo manga. She dreams of someone confessing their love to her. But when a boy finally does, she feels nothing — much to her own dismay — and turns him down.

When Yuu’s senpai and student council member Touko Nanami also turns down a love confession, Yuu sees a potential kinship blossom. And blossom it does when Touko soon confesses her love for Yuu. Shortly after, Touko runs for student council president, and wins with Yuu’s help as her campaign manager. As president, Touko seeks to revive the tradition of the student council play, which causes tensions between her a Yuu.

Bloom Into You is a sweet and warming yuri manga. Its drama isn’t exaggerated, but grounded and relatable. Its characters are humble and charming. It is, as I said, a fantastic first yuri manga for new readers.

Syrup: A Yuri Anthology

Syrup is an anthology collection of yuri manga short stories. Fourteen stories by fourteen yuri mangaka, including Kodama Naoko, Yoshimura Kana, and Morinaga Milk. Like many anthologies, this one is a mixed bag, both in terms of tone and quality. You’ll find some wholesome shoujo ai tales here, and others that are much more adult and even shocking in tone and events.

While this isn’t ideal reading for younger shoujo and romance manga fans, Syrup remains a worthwhile read for more mature yuri manga readers who may be looking to find some new favourite managaka, or who just want to further broaden their yuri horizons.

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko

Mangaka Kodama Naoko is a legend of the yuri manga scene. Her series NTR – Netsuzou Trap is a steamy and sexy yuri manga about two childhood friends who, while getting ready for romance, quickly realise they only have eyes (and hands and everything else) for each other.

With I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up (a manga with a name to rival the silliest of light novels, and a cover reminiscent of the manga of Nagata Kabi), Kodama Naoko has taken a lighter approach to the yuri manga genre.

First of all, the art here is bright and expressive, helping to exude that lighter, sweeter tone with pitch-perfect accuracy. As for the story, the title does a lot of the work. This is the tale of a young office worker, Machi, whose parents are hounding her to get married, settle down, and enter traditional adult life.

In order to stop her parents in their tracks, Machi agrees to enter a sham marriage with her friend and underclassman, Hana, who is currently living with her, and happens to have a crush on her. Machi’s conservative parents are disgusted by the match and so, they’re successfully shut up for the time being, as the title promises.

However, over time, Machi learns that she’s happy in this marriage; that it gives her everything she never knew she wanted; that she was happy to upset her parents and the status quo because she’s now living a truth that was previously hidden. This is not a revolutionary story, nor is it a long one. This is a single-volume manga consisting of just a few chapters. It’s a charming, concise, and joyous yuri manga that serves as another great intro to the genre.

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon by Shio Usui

A lot of yuri manga stars, and is geared towards an audience of, teenagers and younger readers (hence why it often falls under the umbrella of shoujo manga). This makes it refreshing when a manga like Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon comes along.

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon follows Hinako, a young office worker with self-esteem issues. She disguises this with a fashionable, put-together exterior, but inside, she is desperate for love, affection, and a normal life that makes sense.

Why is it that what she is seeking — what other people seem to find so easily and so often — seems impossible for her? Anyone who is queer but took a little while to realise it (like myself and many others) will resonate with this feeling enormously.

Why is it that Hianko can’t find a man, fall into a happy relationship, get married, and settle down? The answer arrives when she finds herself daydreaming about her female colleague, Asahi. Much like the novels of Japanese author Sayaka Murata, Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is about not fitting the restrictive, heteronormative mould that society has carved out for you.

It’s a poignant yuri manga, full of wholesome moments and fleshed-out characters. It takes its time and is better for it. Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon will hit any queer reader who realised their sexuality as an adult in a partcularly empathetic way.

SHWD by Sono.N

SHWD is a brilliantly unique yuri manga, in that it is also a science fiction action manga that is fully committed to its sci-fi excitement. Our protagonist, Koga, is a butch young woman who has recently joined the titular SHWD (Special Hazardous Waste Disposal): a private military company dedicated to the eradication of mysterious bioweapons that appear in public places, endanger lives, and turn people insane.

When she is recruited to one of Japan’s SHWD branches, Koga is taken under the wing of Sawada, an experienced operative whom she quickly develops a crush on. Their relationship is both helped and hindered by the American Leone, whose closeness to Sawada makes Koga itchy and frustrated.

There is as much action and bloodshed in this sci-fi manga as there is will-they-won’t-they tension. Whether this is a yuri manga in a sci-fi world or a sci-fi manga with a yuri love story is up to you to decide, but one very refreshing thing about it is the focus placed on enormous, muscular butch women, rather than the predictably sweet and femme girls so often seen in yuri manga.

Buy a copy of SHWD here!

Whisper Me a Love Song by Eku Takeshima

Whisper Me a Love Song is an interesting and deceptively complex shoujo manga. At first glance, it’s a sweet young yuri tale of blossoming love. But it also has a lot to say about different interpretations of love. Himari is a young high-schooler who finds herself enamoured by her senpai’s voice during a musical performance, and wastes no time in telling Yori that she “fell in love at first sight”.

Yori takes this to mean that Himari fancies and wants to date her, which isn’t the case. It’s a case of misunderstanding, but with a spark of potential growth and blossoming. From here, we are treated to so much intimate time with these two young girls. We get to know them as individuals, while also watching their relationship develop and take on different forms.

Eku Takeshima’s art is some of the best in the yuri manga space. Whisper Me a Love Songpops with vibrancy and texture. Her character designs hearken back to the 90s era of shoujo manga while also being something wholly and recognisably her own.

Our Wonderful Days by Kei Hamuro

While many yuri manga can also be bracketed within the slice-of-life genre of shoujo manga, this is more true for Our Wonderful Days than perhaps any other. This manga is about the ordinary, sweet daily lives of four high school girls out in the Japanese countryside.

If you’re a fan of the manga/anime Laid Back Camp, you’ll get the vibes I’m describing here. But the difference with Our Wonderful Days is that it is also a yuri manga; it blends the slice-of-life and shoujo-ai genres seamlessly and beautifully.

Our Wonderful Days is perhaps the most beautifully-drawn manga you’ll find here. Hamuro’s character art, her knack for facial expressions, and her depictions of peaceful, calming rural life are second to none. As for its plot, Our Wonderful Days is a pseudo-episodic manga told across just eighteen chapters (or three volumes). It focuses on the daily lives and growing relationships of its four protagonists.

Two of those protagonists were friends in elementary school until one moved away. Now that she’s back, a romance gradully buds and blooms. This is a yuri manga that showcases the ordinary beauty of ordinary life in a rural town, just as its name implies. This is a beautiful, soothing, warming manga, essential for fans of the slice-of-life and yuri manga genres.

5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love by Zeniko Sumiya

The first volume of 5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love is a collection of three one-shot sapphic manga. The first chapter is a cat-and-mouse game between the powerful sorceress Meg and the witch hunter Lilith. As they fight and toy with one another, their true feelings bubble to the surface. First Meg’s, then eventually Lilith’s. In this chapter, Meg turns Lilith into a cat but must soon come to her rescue when she’s stolen.

In the manga’s second chapter, Demon’s Harem, we follow a teenage girl who is able to see supernatural things. When she saves the lives of an angel and demon, both find themselves falling for her and staying invisibly close to her side. When an exchange student moves in and starts to monopolise all of Kanna’s time, the angel and demon grow jealous, but there’s something not quite right about this girl.

Finally, the manga’s third chapter is a sequel to the first, returning us to Meg and Lilith. The witch hunter believes she has been enchanted; she gets weak at the knees whenever the sorceress is around, and she’s sure it’s the work of a love spell. And so, she chases Meg down to try and get the spell reversed. That is, if there’s any such spell at all. This Yuri manga is a fun and adorable treat from beginning to end.

A Tropical Fish Years for Snow by Makoto Hagino

A Tropical Fish Years for Snow is another delightfully drawn manga with a simple but heartwarming premise. Across the shoujo and shounen spaces, a high-schooler being forced to join a club is a trope we’ve seen a hundred times. It often leads to confusion, shenanigans, and new friends. The same is true for A Tropical Fish Years for Snow.

Konatsu Amano’s father has moved overseas for work, which means that his daughter has had to leave Tokyo to go live with her aunt in a sleepy seaside town. New town, new school, new friends.

When she is required to join a club, Konatsu is at a loss, until she stumbles across the Aquarium Club and her new classmate Koyuki Honami, who begins by asking her: “Do you like salamanders?” From here, romance blooms.

Strawberry Shake Sweet by Hayashiya Shizuru

Strawberry Shake Sweet is a yuri manga that ran from 2003 to 2008, and has become a cult classic of the genre since it finished. Despite its five-year run, this shoujo manga is only two volumes long, making it delightfully compact.

Our protagonist, Julia Tachibana, is a young idol, a shining talent of Shanghai Talent Limited. She takes on the new talent Ran Asakawa, whom she is initially jealous of, but soon falls for.

Strawberry Shake Sweet is easily one of the funniest yuri manga ever written. The slapstick comedy is always on point and the jokes that arise from misunderstandings, or from Julia’s constant struggle to express her feelings while trying to be professional, are hysterical.

Octave by Haru Akiyama

Octave is another absolute classic of the yuri manga genre. And what makes this a particularly excellent manga is its rawness and its maturity. Octave is not a feel-good bubblegum story. It’s difficult and, for that reason, relatable.

Yukino Miyashita is eighteen, and a former teen idol. She grew up with stars in her eyes and, at fifteen, joined an idol group with minimal success. Now, at only eighteen, she feels like a failure.

After choosing to move back home and reassess her life, Yukino meets a former composer named Setsuko Iwai, with whom she becomes enamoured. This is a hard-hitting manga about a person coming to realise that life is worth living, no matter what. After failure and disappointment, life continues and changes shape, and that’s okay.

Yukino is a wonderfully well-realised protagonist, and Setsuko is far more than just a love interest. Haru Akiyama paints her characters with love and attention. They are real, tragic, flawed, aspirational, frightened, hurt, and vulnerable, and you’ll love them for it.

Here, you’ll find lesbian romances, gay experiences, transgender stories, tales of ace existence, and more. We have done our best to represent a broad spectrum of LGBTQ experiences here.

Must-Read LGBTQ Books from Around the World

The writers on this list identify as multiple different orientations and genders, and the list has been assembled by a transgender writer. It is not a definitive list, by any means; simply a list of important, impactful LGBTQ books by queer writers.

We hope you enjoy this list of queer books by queer writers from Argentina, France, Sweden, Korea, Cameroon, Japan, and more!

Read More: Queer Comic Books & Manga

Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller

Bad Gays is a daring and exciting collection of biographies that detail the lives and exploits of some of history’s worst gay men and women: kings, tyrants, gangsters, fascists, and so much more.

From the Roman leader Hadrian to the British gangster Ronnie Kray via legendary figures like King James I, and Lawrence of Arabia, we take a detailed look at the lives of these awful people, who all happened to be members of the LGBTQ community.

One chapter focusses on the Bad Gays of Weimar Berlin. Another on the fascistic Japanese author Yukio Mishima. These are strange, complex people who did great and terrible things. All the while, their orientations and gender expressions were inexorably tied to who they were and what they did.

One repeated theme is the definition of what it means to be gay, and the clash between the unacceptable feminine expression of camp men and the acceptable bonds between two burly, manly men. Put simply, it’s not ok to be effeminate but it is ok to screw your bros.

Bad Gays is a detailed, wonderfully well-researched, hilariously well-expressed book on the gays that we love to hate throughout history, and how they left their mark on the world.

Buy a copy of Bad Gays here!

Read More: LGBTQ Bedtime Stories for Children

Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella

At times, Bored Gay Werewolf reads like an explicitly queer Fight Club for the new millennium. A novel about themes toxic masculinity and capitalism, expressed with charm, humour, and a few splatters of blood.

Our protagonist, Brian, is a twenty-five-year-old waiter with two close friends whom he works with. His life is aimless and uninteresting, except for the fact that he’s a werewolf who was cursed with lycanthropy while at college.

Soon enough, Brian meets Tyler (Fight Club reference?), a young cishet guy with inherited wealth who talks a big game about alpha males and grind culture.

Brian sees Tyler’s talk for what it is: toxic bullshit. But Tyler is also a werewolf, and that bond between them goes a long way. Tyler has come to understand things about this curse that Brian wishes to grasp.

And so, despite himself, Brian is suckered into this scheme of capitalising on werewolf culture; developing a brand, an app, and a brotherhood around the idea of alpha male werewolf men.

Bored Gay Werewolf is a savvy book that exposes the shallow, empty, meaningless believes and behaviours of toxic men. As well as exposing the lack of fulfilment that comes with choosing aggression, dominance, and selfishness over community; something that queer people understand better than most.

Bored Gay Werewolf is one of the most fun, refreshing, unique, and best LGBTQ books of recent years.

Buy a copy of Bored Gay Werewolf here!

Solo Dance by Li Kotomi

Translated from the Japanese by Arthur Reiji Morris

Taiwanese-born, Japan-based bilingual author Li Kotomi delivers here a powerful queer novel about identity and belonging.

Solo Dance tells the story of a young Taiwanese woman who suffered alienation and trauma growing up as a lesbian. When she moves to Tokyo to start again, she must continue to hide who she is.

Fear, depression, and thoughts of suicide mar Cho Norie’s entire existence, and she turns to the books written by similarly depression-haunted authors for comfort.

In spite of how much Solo Dance deals with trauma and dark thoughts, there is a lot of hope to be found beneath the surface, and as the novel goes on.

First and foremost, this is one of those LGBTQ books that empathises with the reader. It offers comfort and understanding. It makes us feel less alone and able to see a light at the end of our struggles.

Cho Norie goes through so much, and she feels frequent pain. She comes close to giving into that pain, but she doesn’t. We see her at Pride events, getting therapy, and making friends. She tries.

Solo Dance is a beautiful novel, beautifully translated, and beautifully gifted to those of us who need empathy and understanding in our darkest moments.

Buy a copy of Solo Dance here!

Violets by Kyung-sook Shin

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

Violets is a feminist Korean novel by one of the country’s greatest modern writers: Kyunk-sook Shin.

We begin with protagonist San, living in a small village in 1970. San is close friends with a girl called Namae, and one day, while the two of them are playing in a minari field, they kiss.

For San, this kiss is a moment of intimate awakening of her orientation that she immediately cherishes. She is electrified and she feels alive; connected to her friend. For Namae, though, this moment — this kiss ‚ is disgusting. She flees, and refuses to speak to or see San again.

From here, we move to San as a young adult in Seoul, taking on a job at a florist. She befriends and eventually moves in with a female colleague, and the two of them form a tight connection.

However, this is also a novel about men and the male gaze; about how men intrude on women’s spaces simply by looking at or touching them.

This is a novel that looks at seemingly innocent acts committed by men every day, acts that are actually subtly intrusive, and signs of dominance.

Violets is a Korean novel about men’s self-appointed right to touch and look at women, publicly and without shame. But it’s also about the female gaze by comparison. It looks at how women treat one another with greater respect, kindness, and intimate understanding.

While it’s not one of the most explicitly LGBTQ books out there, Violets shines a light on heteronormativity and patriarchy, and asks us to question these things.

Buy a copy of Violets here!

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus

Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto has seen incredible international fame, and for good reason. She is an author intimately attuned to the quiet threads between love, life, and death. Her books and stories explore love and tragedy in all their forms.

Kitchen begins with Mikage, who was raised by her grandparents after her parents died. After her grandmother’s dead, she meets Yuichi and his mother. And so begins a romance between Mikage and Yuichi.

In Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto broke new ground. Published in 1988 in Japan, Kitchen is a Japanese novel that features a prominent transgender character.

Though the novel is a queer love story, the mother of Yuichi, a woman named Eriko, is a trans woman. This thoughtful and considered trans representation, especially as far back as the late ‘80s, is inspiring, and our trans character is given full attention, agency, and a personal arc.

Eriko is not entirely defined by her existence as a token trans character. She is a woman with depth, defined by her love for her son and her dedication to protect him and raise him right.

Kitchen was a novel ahead of its time and, for that reason, remains one of the most important LGBTQ books from Japan.

Buy a copy of Kitchen here!

Read our full review of Kitchen here!

The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Translated from the Spanish by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre

A thrilling lesbian novel from Argentina, The Adventures of China Iron is a joyously hilarious and thrilling story of self-discovery and personal freedom.

China Iron was never given a name. At the beginning of the book, her backstory is established quickly and succinctly.

We learn a little about her parentage, her working for and being raised by two cold abusers, her marriage to a singer who is eventually drafted, and her having given birth at the age of fourteen.

As her story gets underway, China is picked up on the road by a woman named Liz, a Scottish woman looking to make her fortune in this late 19th Century Argentina. Liz is the beginning of China’s freedom, in more ways than one.

Soon after their journey begins, China begins to crave Liz. She has an intense longing for her, demonstrated by some visceral, erotic language that enforces the heat at the heart of China. She is a woman who feels a great deal – she lusts and yearns; she wants to love and be loved.

“She was my North and I was the quivering needle on a compass: my whole body was pulled towards her, dwarfed by the strength of my desires.”

The Adventures of China Iron is a novel about queer freedom. A romance between two women with a lust for life. They turn their noses up at patriarchy and those who reinforce it.

They laugh in the face of normalcy. They explore, they journey, and they love. As a celebration of queerness and lesbian love, this is one of the best LGBTQ books out there.

Buy a copy of The Adventures of China Iron here!

Read our full review of The Adventures of China Iron here!

The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

Translated from the Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich

Chi Ta-wei is a renowned and celebrated scholar of LGBTQ books and literary history. His queer, speculative sci-fi novel The Membranes was written in 1995 and wasn’t translated into English until 2021.

Looking at this book through a time-travel lens, it is remarkable to consider how revolutionary the themes and ideas of this short novel were.

The Membranes tells the story of Momo, a woman living around the turn of the 22nd Century. Momo is a dermal care technician with some very prestigious clients.

The world of The Membranes is a post-climate-change one, in which every lives in bubbled cities at the bottom of the ocean, protected from the sun and the scorched Earth.

Despite its setting, The Membranes is a very intimate tale, focussing on Momo’s personal history and lived experiences, especially her relationship with her mother.

We experience much of this book through flashbacks to Momo’s childhood and specific moments that lead to her life now, age thirty.

What makes The Membranes one of the most profound LGBTQ books of our time is how it explores gender relationships.

Momo was a test tube baby, born from a decision made by two women. This is also a transgender story (though including the hows and whys of this would be to spoil the story).

Chi Ta-wei wrote this novel at a time of punk art revolutions in a newly politically free Taiwan. This was a period of change where artists bent and broke the rules of gender, and The Membranes reflects this.

Buy a copy of The Membranes here!

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Alison Rumfitt is a transgender writer based in Brighton, UK. Her debut novel, Tell Me I’m Worthless is an unflinching, punk trans novel about the UK’s treatment of trans people.

It’s an unpleasant, twisted, gothic nightmare of a novel, and it’s also a work of literary genius; one of the finest LGBTQ books of the past few years. Tell Me I’m Worthless follows two former friends: Alice and Ila. Alice is a trans woman who is haunted by ghost.

Ila is a vocal TERF who was radicalised after the two spent a night at a haunted house together. Each of them believes the other assaulted them in that house.

Rumfitt’s novel is a revolutionary piece of gothic horror that wears its pain on its sleeve. This is a novel that attacks transphobic Britain (or “TERF Island” if you’d prefer). It ponders what the UK is doing to trans people, rallying transphobes against us and leaving us to live in fear.

Beyond being an important and angry transgender novel by a fierce trans voice, Tell Me I’m Worthless is also, very simply, a wonderful piece of modern gothic fiction.

Buy a copy of Tell Me I’m Worthless here!

To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young

Translated from the Korean by Soje

In this harrowing post-apocalyptic novel that brings to mind others of its kind — The Road, Oryx and Crake, I Am Legend (the book, not the film) — Choi Jin-young shows us how, against all odds, love can win out in the end.

Set after a disease has ravaged the planet, To The Warm Horizon follows two young Korean women who have met on the road in the cold wilds of Russia.

Dori has lost her parents to the disease and is now in charge of her deaf and mute sister. Jina is travelling with her extended family and childhood friend Gunji.

Dori and Jina’s encounter leads to some raw and chilling events, exactly the kind you’d expect to see in a disease-wrought, post-apocalyptic wasteland. But against all of this, the love and dedication that these two women find for each other keeps the reader hopeful.

This is a beautiful lesbian love story that uses this hook to set it apart from the less hopefully novels that populate the same genre, making it one of the most unique LGBTQ books out there.

Buy a copy of To The Warm Horizon here!

An Orphan World by Giuseppe Caputo

Translated from the Spanish by Juana Adcock & Sophie Hughes

Of all the LGBTQ books on this list, An Orphan World is one of the most angry. A Columbian novel about the unfair treatment of gay men from youth to adulthood.

In An Orphan World, Caputo writes with his pen on fire; furious at the threatening beast of a world that young gay men are thrust into. An Orphan World begins in two places.

One is a part of the past, where our protagonist draws us a picture of his optimistic but penniless father: a man who scrawls on the walls of their shell of a house like a naughty child or a caveman, in a cheap, coarsely creative attempt to bring art and colour to their lives.

The other place is a gay club, a little later on, as our protagonist is in the thralls of self-discovery. The club, through Caputo’s description, feels like being inside a drum as it is relentlessly beaten at from the outside.

There is little friendship to be found here; little safety; little comfort. The world is deadly and aggressive, and it revels in that aggression. Even personal exploration is painful and unfair.

This fear and anger is explored with dizzying allure in An Orphan World, as the story is melted down and then folded over itself again and again like the liquid steel of a blade — a blade that Caputo himself is forging to take on an unjust world, teeth bared and both hands on the blade as he goes. Few LGBTQ books are as raw, angry, and impactful as An Orphan World.

Buy a copy of An Orphan World here!

Read our full review of An Orphan World here!

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby made history when it became the first book written by a trans woman to appear on the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Beyond this, Detransition, Baby also happens to be a bold and human novel that explores the dark and the light sides of being a trans woman in the twenty-first century, written by one of the foremost trans authors of our time.

The novel’s story, set in Brooklyn, centres around Reese and Ames (formerly Amy). Reese is a trans woman in her mid-thirties who desperately longs to be a mother.

Ames is now living as a man but lived for six years as a trans woman named Amy, and much of that time was spent in a lesbian relationship with Reese.

Detransition, Baby is, unquestionably, one of the most important LGBTQ books written in recent years. A novel by a trans woman about the murky waters of transness.

Lesbian relationships; tearing the mask of heteronormativity; rejecting the patriarchal status quo with regards to relationships, having children, and building a family.

Detransition, Baby explores so many facets of queerness, all while being a complex character drama. One of the great LGBTQ books of our time.

Buy a copy of Detransition, Baby here!

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

She Who Became The Sun is a genderqueer retelling of the origin story of one of China’s most iconic historical figures: Zhu Yuanzhang, founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Set in the 14th Century, She Who Became The Sun takes the story of Zhu Yuanzhang — the story of a peasant who became a monk, then a rebel leader, and finally an emperor — and makes it into a beautiful fantasy-inspired genderqueer epic. In its first chapter, She Who Became The Sun shows us a peasant family on the brink of starvation.

Though a fortune teller has told the father that his son will find greatness, the father and son are soon killed, and all that’s left is the fateless daughter.

This daughter takes the name Zhu Chongba, the name of her brother, disguises herself as a man, seeks refuge at a monastery, and from there rises up through the ranks of a rebel army as they gain power against the mongols who currently occupy China.

As a piece of non-binary fiction, She Who Became The Sun explores the life of someone who is at first a woman disguised as a man, but who later finds their identity as both and neither.

Zhu Chongba is a truly inspiring non-binary protagonist, and this is one of the coolest LGBTQ books on shelves right now.

Buy a copy of She Who Became the Sun here!

An Apartment on Uranus by Paul B. Preciado

Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

An Apartment on Uranus is a collection of chronological essays which begin in March 2013 in Paris, one of Paul’s three great geographical loves, and ends in January 2018 in Arles (captured by Van Gogh’s alluring painting Café Terrace at Night).

Blending personal observations — both inward and outward — with musings on borders, laws, patriarchy, capitalism, Marxism, and issues surrounding trans rights and the lives of trans people, An Apartment on Uranus is enormous in terms of the ground that it covers and the concepts which it discusses.

An Apartment on Uranus often reads like a call-to-arms. It brings to the surface issues of safety for women’s rights to their own bodies, the rights of trans people to do what it takes to survive and exist in this world, and so many more issues besides. It is not entirely and inescapably political, however (although, as we know, everything is, in fact, political).

Paul is also, throughout An Apartment on Uranus, tracing his own transgender journey. He mentions near the book’s end that he has lived his entire life as a lesbian woman, and the last five years as a transgender man.

One of the most exhilarating books by a trans man, as well as one of the most emboldening LGBTQ books on the shelves, An Apartment on Uranus is a must-read.

Buy a copy of An Apartment on Uranus here!

Read our full review of An Apartment on Uranus here!

We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner

Written by UK-based German non-binary author Isabel Waidner, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff is a punk and radical novel that tackles intensely philosophical themes: empire, cultural and national identity, the class system, migrant experiences, and more.

Set on the Isle of Wight, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff mostly takes place in a hotel and follows the surreal episodic lives of two queer migrants who work there. Queer and migrant experiences, as well as issues created by class disparity, about throughout.

This is one of the most exciting LGBTQ books available right now, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize alongside Lucy Ellman’s Ducks, Newburyport. There is no writer in the world like Isabel Waidner and no queer book quite like We Are Made of Diamond Stuff.

Buy a copy of We Are Made of Diamond Stuff here!

Loveless by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is an ace author of queer YA fiction and queer comic books. Her novel, Loveless, loosely inspired by her own lived experiences, follows a teenager who moves to Durham University, is thrust into the queer world of her peers, and goes on a journey to understand her own orientation.

As YA novels go, Loveless is wonderful for representation. It features non-binary characters, lesbian romances, as its protagonist’s gradual understanding of her own ace identity.

There aren’t many LGBTQ books that do so much for queer representation in literature, while also being an engaging and moving tale.

Loveless is a very poignant but direct story of queerness, featuring a colourful cast of characters, set in a place where many of us undergo a journey of experimentation and self-discovery, and it succeeds at every turn.

Buy a copy of Loveless here!

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

Love in the Big City is a gay Korean novel about friendship, youth, self-discovery, hedonism, and romance.

Our protagonist, likely based on the author himself, is a young gay man in Seoul who is best friends with a woman; they drink and party and have fun and meet people together.

We begin with this lovely, charming example of youth and friendship and fun. But eventually Young’s friend “grows up” and gets series, and so Young has to do the same. We watch him become a published writer, enter into a relationship, deal with family troubles, and even health issues of his own.

We spend so much time with Young’s experiences and feelings. We sympathise with his struggles: family relationships, homophobia in public, break-ups and heartbreak.

He’s a wonderfully likeable, honest, broken protagonist that we grow to love and understand and appreciate. Love in the Big City is a kind and sweet novel; one of the most charming and warming LGBTQ books around.

Buy a copy of Love in the Big City here!

A Long Way From Douala by Max Lobe

Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz

Max Lobe is an author from Douala, Cameroon who moved to Switzerland for university and has remained there ever since.

His novel A Long Way From Douala tells the brutal and harrowing journey of a young gay man, depicting the realities of modern-day Cameroon along the way.

After their father dies, Jean’s brother Roger disappears. He leaves Douala and heads north, following a dream of becoming a successful footballer. He will likely head to Nigeria and, from there, to Europe. With the help of their friend Simon, Jean gives chase after his head-in-the-clouds brother.

As they travel, threats of terrorism and violence are every present, and Jean spends time musing on and trying to understand his own queer identity as a young gay man, which is at odds with his own society and the religion in which he was raised.

This is a touching story that paints a vivid picture of modern-day Cameroon from a religious, socioeconomic perspective, and this makes it one of the more unique LGBTQ books avaialble right now.

Buy a copy of A Long Way from Douala here!

Girls Lost by Jessica Schiefauer

Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

Girls Lost is the tale of three teenagers, exhausted and confused by the system that divides boys and girls and the young men who abuse it, who find the chance to see, for a time, through the eyes of a man in a man’s world. Girls Lost also escalates into a deep exploration of primal urges, aggression, and the forms that freedom can take.

While it isn’t one of the most out-and-out LGBTQ books, Girls Lost is a YA novel that asks poignant questions about gender; the blurred lines and fluidity that exists between both.

If you were to label it in some way, this is a YA novel about gender binaries. As a queer reader/writer, I found the questions and topics explored in this novel immensely satisfying.

Girls Lost is eager to discuss the walls between genders, as well as the journey to womanhood and the relationships we build with our friends and lovers. It’s a frightfully clever book with an ambitious philosophy that is entirely well-executed. It wants you to think, consider, and reconsider your position orientation and gender. And you will, over and over again.

Buy a copy of Girls Lost here!

Read our full review of Girls Lost here!

100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

Like many of the LGBTQ books on this list, 100 Boyfriends is an unfettered punk book. In fact, by their very nature, most LGBTQ books are punk: going against the grain, fighting the heteronormative state of our society, and celebrating an alternative way of living and loving. 100 Boyfriends is a collection of twenty-five stories about gay love.

Funny, bleak, twisted, horny, heart-warming, heart-rending; these stories stretch across the entire emotional spectrum, entering into taboo and surreal territory.

Rarely is gay love depicted with this much humour, rawness, and volume. This is a book that shows queer relationships in their brightest and their darkest moments.

If you want an untamed collection of queer stories, written by a gay, Black, American author with a punk and sardonic attitude, you need to check out 100 Boyfriends. It is a diamond amongst LGBTQ books.

Buy a copy of 100 Boyfriends here!

Memorial by Bryan Washington

Bryan Washington is another gay, Black American writer making waves in the world of LGBTQ books, first with his short story collection Lot, and now with his debut novel Memorial.

Set in both Texas and Osaka, Japan, Memorial traces the troubled lives of two men in love: a Black American named Benson and a Japanese migrant named Mike.

When Mike learns that his estranged father, back in Osaka, is dying, he immediately drops everything to go see him. Meanwhile, Mike’s mother has just turned up at their flat and must now spend time living in an awkward situation with her son’s boyfriend.

The narrative flits between Ben and Mike, between Texas and Osaka, tracing the stories of these two men as individuals and as a couple. We see how their relationship has become so rocky, and we see how they will choose to move forward from here.

Memorial is another raw, angry, but ultimately uplifting novel about queer love and gay relationships. One of the most impactful LGBTQ books of today.

Buy a copy of Memorial here!

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Meredith Russo’s novel, If I Was Your Girl, is a joyous narrative piece of transgender fiction that puts the focus on not being a tragedy.

So much trans representation in fiction brings the trans character’s story to a tragic ending, which is not the kind of narrative we want to be ingrained in the public discourse. That’s why this particular queer novel is so important. It’s a TA trans novel written by a trans author that is full of hope.

If I Was Your Girl, full of highs and lows, but it reminds its trans readers that their own ending can and should be a happy one, making this one of the most vital pieces of transgender fiction, and will go down as one of the great transgender stories and LGBTQ books.

Buy a copy of If I Was Your Girl here!

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

A sequel to Garth Greenwell’s original What Belongs to You, Cleanness is a novel about a nameless protagonist, as torn and broken as the city in which he resides.

Set in the exciting but troubled city of Sofia, Bulgaria (one that captured our own hearts), Cleanness follows the fragmented journey through the troubled waters of love by an American teacher living and working in Bulgaria.

Split into three parts, Cleanness transcends nations and nationalities, ages and generations, as it explores the fraught and sometimes toxic relationships of the men we meet.

Cleanness is a dark and honest novel that holds nothing back; it is often bleak in its discussion of gay relationships, mental health, and existential trouble. It is one of the darker LGBTQ books written in recent times, but a small masterpiece nonetheless.

Buy a copy of Cleanness here!